


The Choice

by QueenHimiko



Category: Slayers (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:37:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 34,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6299542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenHimiko/pseuds/QueenHimiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gourry has to choose between his wife and the village lunatic. But what consequences will this choice have?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To the Ends of the Earth

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own "The Slayers," I just play in the sandbox.

The branches of the juniper tree hit him reprovingly as he walked through the narrowing path. Gourry took each blow stoically. He deserved the pain. There was no use debating it. He was in the wrong, and it seemed as if even the woods knew it and was punishing him for it. Chasing the village lunatic and encouraging her delusions was the last thing he should be doing. But still, every evening he abandoned his wife and chased her down to join her in her world. 

But tonight Gourry felt unusually desperate to see her. He had heard some horrible rumors from his customers. Rumors that her sister had found someone to marry her off to. Rumors that her sister was keeping her under lock and key until the wedding tomorrow. Gourry knew better than to ask her fearsome sister to see her. He knew exactly what the answer would be. But the thought that Lina would be gone without him even having the chance to say good bye was too crushing.

The blacksmith took a deep, steadying breath as his emotions threatened to consume him. He just didn’t know what he would do if he didn’t have to look forward to seeing her and being embroiled in her fantastic adventures every evening. It was the only thing that made his life tolerable. He simply couldn’t imagine life without her.

But then he heard her voice yelling from up ahead, “Say things like that and I’ll see that you regret it!”

Gourry smiled in relief even as his palms became sweaty. Lina had gotten away. Or better, the rumors were completely wrong, and she wasn’t getting married and hadn’t been locked up in the first place. He could see her, even if it was for this one last time. He walked in the direction of her voice and soon found her staring down a rock formation. “Need a hand?” he asked.

She turned and saw him, “Where have you been?” she cried, her hands held in front of her, caught midway in the strange dance she did when she claimed to be spell casting.

“Got held up.” He said. He’d learned to be sparse on details until she gave him enough information to figure out which of the monsters she was currently fighting.

“That’s no excuse!” she said as she rounded on him, hands on her hips, “You knew we were heading to Mane and…”

“Oh, was that where we were headed?” he asked as he scratched his head. “I forgot.”

“Idiot!” she said as she slapped him. “I guess you also forgot who it is we’re fighting.”

“I could do with a recap.”

She groaned in frustration, “Dynast. He has men everywhere in the city. They’ve taken over. We have to be very careful, they’ll lock us up on the slightest pre-text.”

“But how do you know they’ve taken over?” Gourry asked.

“His men were following me in the village. They thought I didn’t see them, but I did.”

Gourry smiled sadly as he deliberated between joining her in her fantasy and injecting some reality into the situation. Considering it might be the last time he saw he, a wiser course would have been to just join with her. But he desperately wanted to talk about what would happen tomorrow. If he could get her to a lucid point (and sometimes he could), well, there was so much he had to tell her. “Could that have been the merchant?”

Lina looked confused, “Merchant?”

“I heard a rumor. Your family arranged for you to marry a merchant.”

Lina tsked. “It’s all part of the plot! They’re trying to distract me with a wedding to keep me from exposing them.”

Gourry bit his lip, and wondered if Lina would be lucid enough to go through with the wedding. Her family was getting desperate to have her off their hands. She’d embarrassed them numerous times by calling out prominent town officials as being in league with demons. She’d even accused the mayor of being in a plot to assassinate the king! The only reason Lina hadn’t been confined and left to rot in a jail somewhere was because of the influence of her sister, who had married the mayor. But even that was starting to wane as Lina kept accusing more and more people of being in league with demons and out to destroy her. And while Lina was harmless, people were scared to visit her parents’ store and business was suffering. How they had ever managed to find someone willing to marry her was mystifying. Gourry had heard he was from out of town.

He smiled and reached out to run a hand through her hair, enjoying its softness and slight curl, “Good. I don’t exactly want you marrying anyone.”

She looked up at him, her eyes shining with anxiety as a blush took over her face. He pulled his hand back as what he was doing sank in, burning him. On the one hand it was an innocent gesture, but he imbued it with an affection he never showed his wife. But worse in his mind, he was feeding Lina’s delusions! If she didn’t go through with the ceremony in the morning her sister was bound to make sure his business was run into the ground.

But then he was also terrified of what could happen when Lina’s intended husband found out just how sick she was. Her family might have been anxious to have her out of their hair, but he enjoyed her delusions. When most people looked at him they saw the cowardly and timid blacksmith. He didn’t understand how she could look at him and see a brave, heroic figure, but she did. And he loved it. He also loved the world she would draw him into, where epic battles between good and evil were waged. It made his world interesting.

“So, what’s the plan?” he asked as he decided that, as this would be their last night together, he’d better make sure they had the best adventure yet.

She shrugged, “I’ll figure that out as we go along.”

“Glad some things never change.” He said, “So how…”

She put her arm up to stop him, and then he heard it. A rustling of tree branches. “Amelia! Get down from that tree before you break your neck!” Lina yelled.

The leaves rustled, and Gourry could barely discern a young woman sitting in the branches, “Caught me.” She said.

Slowly Amelia climbed down from the tree, a book under her arm. Lina had caught her reading in the tree several years ago and declared that she was a warrior princess. The idea seemed to appeal to the scribe’s daughter, and rather than dismissing Lina as insane, she was just as drawn into her world as he was. 

Moreover, Amelia seemed to help Lina expand on the world. The ungainly and shy young woman loved the idea of being a warrior princess just as much as Gourry loved being a legendary hero. But while Gourry followed Lina’s lead, Amelia helped Lina to create the world.

“Who are we fighting today?” Amelia asked.

“Dynast’s minions have infiltrated the city!” Lina declared.

“Then we must rid the town of this menace!”

“Wait, where’s Zel?” Lina asked.

“At his inn. Remember, Miss Lina? He didn’t want to be seen in the nice part of town. He didn’t want to scare people.”

“Right! Let’s go find him. We’re going to need his help.”

Lina and Amelia continued in this vein as they walked through the forest. At one point Lina suddenly pivoted around, brought her hands up and pulled one back, “FLARE ARROW!” She yelled.

Gourry wondered what sort of light show Lina saw when she did this. All he saw was Lina doing some strange dance, but Lina was convinced magical energy sprang from her hands and destroyed evil creatures when she did it.

“Yay, Miss Lina! You nabbed that redcap!” Amelia cried.

Gourry had no idea what a redcap was or what made Amelia decide that that was what Lina had seen, but Lina seemed satisfied with her assessment. Gourry scanned the forest, “Yeah, I don’t sense anything.”

“Let’s get going then, but keep your eyes peeled.” Lina said.

Eventually they came to a cave hidden by some dense shrubbery. Gourry would never have guessed it was there, but he and Lina had accidentally found it while “hiding” from some berserkers. And they had also found that the cave housed a lonely occupant.

“Zel!” Lina yelled as she barged in, “What are you doing here? Dynast Grousherra has taken over the castle and we need every hand we can get!”

“Sorry,” Zel said as he brushed the few wispy strands of his hair back, fully exposing the strange, black warts that grew all over his face. As an adolescent he had developed a bizarre skin condition that had turned his skin blue and caused him to break out in huge warts. He had banished himself from the village and lived as a hermit in the cave all alone for a few years until they had found him. He was baffled when Lina looked at him and saw a chimera on a mission to regain his human body. He was also initially very resistant to joining Lina’s antics, but eventually came around. Like Gourry and Amelia, he found Lina’s world irresistible. 

“Right then, we’re off!” Lina said as she set forth, stopping in her tracks when a fifth person came into view. Gourry’s heart sank as Lina stiffened to attention. “Sis.”

Luna glared at her younger sister, “That’s enough of this.” She said, and then she favored the rest of the group with a glare, “And all of you, encouraging her!”

Luna grabbed Lina by the arm and started to drag her back towards to town. “Wait,” Gourry said, “Is it true? Is she getting married tomorrow?”

“What?” Amelia and Zel yelled.

“Yes.” Luna said.

Gourry felt his heart sink, “Please, just this one night. Let us say goodbye.”

Luna turned around, “Your wife is waiting for you at home and I’m sure she would like it if you just paid her a quarter of the attention you pay my sister. And if the merchant isn’t satisfied that she is a bride tomorrow I will talk to Sylphiel.”

Gourry flushed with anger and embarrassment as Luna continued to storm off with Lina. “Do…do you really think she’ll stay coherent enough to make it through the ceremony?” Amelia asked quietly.

Gourry stared after them mutely as he thought about all of the horrible ways that Lina could ruin the ceremony, and just what her sister would do to her if it didn’t go smoothly. But he couldn’t bring himself to voice it. The thought of talking hurt too much. Images of them marrying her as quickly as possible before the bridegroom found just how sick his new wife was flashing through his mind. He wouldn’t even put it past Luna to drug her to keep her quiet and tell him that it was just to quiet her nerves. 

Zel put an arm around Amelia’s shoulder as she started to cry. Gourry turned and started to walk back to town, ignoring Amelia as she called after him. Whoever that merchant was, Gourry was sure he wouldn’t see what made Lina special. He would just brush her off as crazy like everyone else.

His house came into view, and he stormed in. Sylphiel was finishing up the dishes. “Did you have a nice walk?” she asked.

“Fine.” He muttered. Usually he could pull himself together enough to give her a perfunctory kiss on the cheek and ask her how her day was, compliment her cooking or something. It couldn’t make up for the fact that he could not find it within himself to love her, but at least he was trying. But tonight he was so upset he felt as though he would dissolve into tears at any moment and curse her for not being Lina. All told, disappearing into the bedroom as soon as he could was the better option.

He changed into his pajamas and got into bed, ignoring the dull ache in his head, dreading the moment when Sylphiel would come in. When she joined him and attempted to cuddle up to him he got up, claiming he needed to go to the bathroom. He was mad at himself for being mad at her that she wasn’t Lina. Mad at himself that he had married her. They were both toddlers when their parents had arranged it, and he had never questioned their decision. When he had met Lina it had been too late. But if he’d not married Sylphiel, he could have married Lina and taken her off her family’s hands. He had a way of calming Lina’s delusions and getting her to focus on mundane tasks. Granted, there were times she was too lost even for that, but he would have helped her through those times. Surely he could have made it work.

But while he resented Sylphiel for being in the way, he also had to acknowledge that it wasn’t her fault. The fact of the matter was that Sylphiel was a very good wife. She was caring and attentive and put up with him being absent every evening. She kept the house immaculate, was a good cook, and was good at networking for his business. She seldom lost her temper with him, even with all he put her through. The fact that she was such a saint made him feel worse for not being able to return her affections.

What must it be like to know that you had lost to the village lunatic?

He could hear Sylphiel crying from the bedroom. Guilt stabbed at him, but he simply could not bring himself to go back into the bedroom and comfort her. He moved out of the house and onto the porch, and his eyes widened in surprise when he found someone already sitting on the bench. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“The monsters got to my sis.” Lina whispered, “She tried to drug me.”

“How did you get away?” he asked as he sat next to her.

“Gave her a good Dil Brand, she hit her head on the table as she fell, knocked her out pretty good.”

Gourry’s stomach turned a bit as he hoped that Luna truly was only knocked out. If Luna was seriously harmed he had no doubt that Lina would be left to rot in a jail. Lina put her hand on his, “We have to get out of here! I saw it today, where we have to go.”

“Huh?” Gourry said.

“Amelia gave me a book. I was looking at it. I found a code in the book, it told me about a library in Dosa where I can find the spell I need to destroy the monsters!”

“Where’s Dosa?” Gourry asked.

“Follow me!” She said as she held out her hand.

He considered her for a moment. God, how he wanted to! But how would they support themselves? And could he really abandon Sylphiel?

But then, even if he jilted Sylphiel, she would be okay. Yes, she would be heartbroken at first. But her family would take her back and plenty of other men would be lining up to marry her. Sylphiel would have a shot of finding romance with someone who could love her in return. If he was gone, Sylphiel could move on and be happy.

But unlike Sylphiel, Lina was in danger. Gourry did not trust this mysterious merchant to take good care of her. At best she would be kept locked but cared for in some attic. At the worse she’d be locked up and left to rot in a jail. Sylphiel’s prospects without him were good. Lina’s were bleak.

What if the best thing for both Lina and Sylphiel was for Gourry to run away with Lina?

“Wait here.” He said, and then he quietly went back into his house. He tiptoed to the cupboard where they kept their money and emptied the entire contents of their money jar into his wallet. Then he grabbed a bag and a few provisions. He wished he knew how to write so he could leave Sylphiel a note explaining that he knew he was a bad husband and that he wanted her to find happiness with someone else. But he couldn’t, and he also couldn’t risk talking with her. He had to get Lina as far away from town as possible. 

He looked over the fireplace and saw the ceremonial sword he and Sylphiel were given as a wedding gift. He thought about how the metals in it could be melted down and sold for a significant amount of money. Putting aside his moral qualms, he grabbed the sword and belted it to his waist. And then he stepped outside.

Lina looked at him, and his heart lurched. _Lina, I will follow you to the ends of the earth!_ Lina extended her hand towards him, and Gourry felt as though he were meeting his destiny as she asked, “Ready?”

He grabbed it and smiled. Somehow, it would be okay, “Ready.”


	2. Shatter

Amelia woke up to the sound of someone pounding desperately at the door. She bolted upright as a nervous excitement exploded within her. 

_Could it be…?_

Amelia heard her father answer the door. “Christopher? Luna? Eruk? What is it?”

Amelia’s heart sank. Of course it was stupid to think she had returned after all these years. But what could her Uncle Christopher, Aunt Luna and Sylphiel’s father want?”

“Is she here?” Luna asked, and Amelia heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway. Curious, she got out of bed and walked to the door to see that her uncle’s wife had barged in.

“Is who here?” Phil asked.

“My sister.” Luna said as she glared at Amelia.

Amelia froze under Luna’s fierce gaze. The only downside to meeting Lina had been meeting Luna. And having Luna meet and then marry her widowed uncle. “I-I’ve not seen her since this evening when you left with her. Why? Why happened?”

Luna motioned to Christopher, “Search her room.”

Amelia’s eyes widened in panic. “There’s no need for that.” Phil said.

“You’re too lenient with her.” Luna said as Christopher went into Amelia’s room. “If you’re not careful she’ll turn out just as rotten as her sister.”

“Where’s Miss Lina?” Amelia asked.

Luna shook her head in exasperation, “Stop pretending you have no idea where she is!”

“There’s no one else here.” Christopher said from Amelia’s room. Eruk returned from searching the rest of the cottage and nodded in agreement.

Luna shook her head, “Damn, I was hoping she was here.”

“This may help.” Christopher said as he came out with Amelia’s journal. Amelia hadn’t thought it was possible to feel any worse than she did until that moment.

“Please, there’s nothing in there…”

“Then you won’t mind our reading it.” Luna said as she took it from Christopher and opened it towards the end. Luna’s lips pursed as it became apparent she would not find the information she desperately wanted. “Well, aside from your pathetic pining over the hermit, it looks like there isn’t anything here.”

Amelia blushed as Luna glared at her, “Where are they?”

“Luna, if Amelia says she doesn’t know where they are, then she doesn’t know.” Phil said in a placating tone, “Let’s all cool down and have a seat. Tell us what happened.”

“No, there’s no time.” Luna snapped, “The hermit. You have to take us to where he lives.”

“Zel?” Amelia asked. “But he doesn’t like people to…”

“You will take us there or I will organize a group of men to find his cave!” Luna yelled.

Amelia started to shake. “Let me get dressed.”

“Grab a shawl. It’s not that cold out.”

Amelia and Phil exchanged a glance. But few dared to stand up to Luna. And now that she was married to Christopher it gave her the authority to bend the townspeople to her will. Amelia ran to grab her shawl and put her sandals on while Luna explained, “I was giving Lina something to calm her nerves. You know how women are the night before their wedding. Well, she decked me good. I’ve got a hell of a goose egg.” Amelia looked at Luna’s head but she couldn’t see it. As always, the upper part of her face was concealed by her thick bangs. “When I came to she was gone. I had a bad feeling. So I went to Gourry’s house first, and wasn’t too surprised to find he was also gone. Naturally Sylphiel is devastated. She’s with her mother.”

Amelia’s heart was beating fast. Had Gourry run away with Lina? Even though Amelia felt devastated that her friends had fled, she could not deny there was something romantic about them fleeing together. But that thrill of them striking back at Luna was buried under her grief. It had gutted her when her sister had run off. Her sister had always been a little odd, so when she met Lina her eccentricities didn’t bother her and Lina became the surrogate sister she had been looking for. And now Lina was gone, too.

All the same, considering she had cried herself to sleep after learning that Lina was going to marry a merchant from out of town, it had already seemed likely that she would never see her again. And part of her was glad that if she had to go away, at least it was with Gourry.

Amelia finished dressing, and they left her father’s cottage and started to the woods. “I just don’t see why Gourry would leave my daughter for that lunatic.” Eruk mumbled.

“He must have been dropped on the head one too many times.” Luna said.

Amelia felt her anger rise over how they talked about her friends. But she kept her mouth shut. Part of her realized that Eruk had every right to be upset. “Amelia,” Christopher said, “Did they say anything, give any indication they were planning this?”

Amelia thought. But she couldn’t think of anything. “None. Look, none of us knew Miss Lina was getting married until yesterday. So they didn’t even have a reason to flee until then. Most likely Mr. Gourry just snapped and decided to run with her.”

“If they put that little planning into it then hopefully they won’t be that difficult to track down.” Luna said.

Amelia’s stomach twisted and turned. She was scared out of her mind that they would be there. While she would give anything to say “good bye” to Lina, she also did not want Luna to catch her sister. Luna’s wrath was terrible to behold. Amelia started to pray fervently that they wouldn’t be there. 

It became more difficult to traverse the terrain as it became uneven in the dark. Not even the light from their lanterns helped much. But Luna was not slowing down one bit in the brisk pace she set. Amelia did not think she had ever seen her so livid. 

Finally they came upon Zel’s cave. Amelia went first and knocked, “It’s me.” She said. “I have company.”

“What are you doing here so late?” he asked from inside his cave. Amelia was worried that it did not sound as though they had woken him.

“Lina and Gourry are missing.” Luna took over as she barged into Zel’s cave uninvited. She swung her lantern around to illuminate the cracks and crevices and Zel darted into the shadows so he couldn’t be seen. The cave was Spartan but comfortable enough. There was a bed, a hearth, and a shelf for his items. “Where are they?”

“I haven’t seen them since this evening.” Zel replied, and Amelia could detect the surprise in his voice. She relaxed a bit. He was telling the truth.

Luna was not so easily convinced. She looked back into the cave, “How far back do these caverns go?”

Zel let out a long breath, “I’ve been living here for three years and I still haven’t explored them completely.”

“Damn!” Luna spat. “I was hoping to catch them without organizing a search party.”

Amelia suddenly realized what should have been obvious before Luna had bullied her into taking her to Zel’s cave. Luna would have preferred to keep this hush-hush.

“Luna,” Christopher said, “Doesn’t this solve a lot of problems? If she’s run off you don’t have to care for her anymore, or worry about her and what she’s doing.”

“And give other people the idea it’s okay to flaunt our authority?” Luna cried in disgust.

“What about Gourry?” Eruk cried in indignation at the same time, “He abandoned my daughter! He stole the sword my wife and I gave them as a wedding gift! Not the mention the dowry we paid…”

Christopher put a hand on his arm, “Perhaps we can come to a financial arrangement?”

Amelia could see that her uncle was eager to wash his hands completely of his troublesome sister-in-law. Luna, however, rounded on him, “What the hell are you talking about!? There’s no way in hell we’re paying for that imbecile’s mistakes!”

“Say we do it your way. We’re going to have to pay to put our men on a search party.” Christopher pointed out.

“But when we find them we can sue that blacksmith for every penny!” Luna shot back. “We’re wasting time here talking about it. Chris, keep an eye on them. Eruk, let’s gather some men.”

Amelia waited quietly as Luna and Eruk left, and she breathed a sigh of relief once they were gone. Amelia looked at Zel. “I’m sorry I brought them here. She was threatening to send more people if I didn’t take her here.”

“I wouldn’t want you to get on her bad side.” Zel said, his voice understanding as he remained in the shadows. Amelia could just barely detect him shaking his head, “I was scared something like this would happen.”

“Is this your friend?” Phil asked.

“Yes, this is Zelgadis Greywards.” Amelia said. “Come on out Zel. This is my daddy, Phil, and my uncle, Christopher.”

“I-I’d prefer to stay here.”

“Amelia talks about you a lot.” Phil said. “She’s very fond of you. I know what it’s like to not be happy with your appearance. I mean, look at me!”

Phil laughed, a gruffly, hearty sound. But Zel remained in the shadows, “That may be, but I would give everything I have to look like you.”

Amelia looked down in disappointment as she realized it was futile to get him to come out. “I hope they’re okay.”

Silence stretched awkwardly for a bit. Then Phil said, “It’s late.”

Amelia looked at Zel, still hidden in the shadow. A deep yearning grew within her, and before she realized what she was doing she had run and grabbed his hands. “Come home with us.” She said.

“I couldn’t…”

“Daddy has so much work right now, he can’t keep up even with my help! You know how to write, you can copy books. We’re getting in so many now! You’d never have to go outside. I could take care of all of the outside business for you. We could make it work.” Amelia pressed, the words tumbling out of her mouth faster than she could control them.

“I couldn’t.” Zel said, “I couldn’t burden you with living with someone as repulsive as me. Just go. Probably, it’ll be better if you don’t come back here now that they’re gone.”

Amelia felt tears start to slide down her cheeks. She couldn’t lose all three of them in one night! Phil put a hand on her shoulder, “Let’s go home. We can think about these things in the morning.”

* * *

Amelia felt numb as she washed the breakfast dishes. Phil had some transactions to attend to, so Amelia was now alone in the house. She hated to be alone. And today she hated it more than she usually did. First her sister had left her, and now Lina and Gourry had. And the thought that Zel would refuse to see her was so unbearable she didn’t feel she could stand it!

Someone knocked on the door. Amelia sighed and walked over to answer it. Her hands shook as she placed them on the door handle. The thought that Lina and Gourry had been found petrified her! So she was slightly stunned to see Luna standing there with Sylphiel. Sylphiel, understandably, had looked better. Her eyes were red and puffy and though she had tried to cover it with a scarf her hair was obviously disheveled. 

“Can I help you?” Amelia asked.

“Yes, I believe you can.” Luna said, “And don’t leave us standing on your doorstep. Invite us in.”

Amelia stood back and motioned them in. “Have a seat.”

Both women took a seat at the table, and Amelia asked, “Can I get you anything?”

“I think we could do with a cup of tea.” Luna said.

Amelia nodded. Fortunately she still had some left from breakfast and was able to quickly get everyone a cup. “Have you found Miss Lina?”

“No. Actually, that’s why we’re here.” Luna replied.

Amelia looked at her warily as she sat down. “I told you, I don’t know…”

“Please, Miss Amelia.” Sylphiel interjected as she grabbed her hands. “Why did he do this? Did he say anything to you? What could I have done differently?”

Tears leaked from Sylphiel’s eyes as she finished her plea. And Amelia felt her stomach flip as a desperate need to rescue her feeling’s rose. “It wasn’t you, Miss Sylphiel. Mr. Gourry said all of the time that you were a good wife and he didn’t deserve you.”

“But why?” Sylphiel asked as her voice cracked, “What did he see in her?”

Amelia flailed for something to say. But before she could come up with something she asked, “Did they, were they lovers?”

“No,” Amelia said honestly, “I was with them most of the time. Honestly we were just telling stories with each other.”

It was the truth. But a partial one. Amelia knew very well that somehow they had fallen in love with each other. But neither had acted on those feelings.

“But why couldn’t he do that with me?” Sylphiel asked.

Amelia’s insides clenched. There was nothing she could tell her that would make it better! “I don’t know.”

“Amelia.” Luna said quietly but forcefully, “You know something more than you’re telling us. And you may not know why Gourry did what he did, but the only way Sylphiel can get her answers is if we find them. Now, tell us what you know.”

Amelia’s first instinct was to protest her innocence once again. But then she looked at Sylphiel’s face, and the words died in her throat. Sylphiel was completely innocent in all of this, and Amelia desperately wanted to give her some solace. At the same time, the only thing giving Amelia any comfort was the knowledge that Lina was safe with Gourry and not with the unknown merchant. And as much as it devastated her that they were gone, she was terrified that at any minute the search party would return with them.

What if she could protect her friends and give Sylphiel some comfort?

“L-last night,” Amelia began with a stutter as she scrambled for a story. Then she remembered something Luna had said, “When Miss Lina knocked you out. Well, she thought she’d killed you, and she was scared she’d be arrested. So she found Mr. Gourry, and I guess they decided to flee together.”

Luna stared at her blankly as Sylphiel’s lips grew thin. Amelia continued, “I was with Zel in his cave and Mr. Gourry and Miss Lina came there. If you travel through the caves long enough and you’ll end up in Petesborough. That’s where they decided to go. I think Mr. Gourry just didn’t want to see her go to jail. She’d never survive there, you know. As frail as she was. He was just trying to protect her.”

Sylphiel slammed her cup down and it shattered over the table. Amelia squealed as she brought her hands up. It was a good thing she did as one of the shards hit her right hand, drawing blood. Amelia turned her hand around to examine it as Sylphiel yelled. “I was the one he pledged himself to protect! Did he, just once, give a damn about me? Just one damn thought!?”

Amelia lowered her hand and stuttered uselessly as Sylphiel continued to vent. Somehow Amelia had failed to help her feel better. Worse, the pent up frustration Sylphiel had felt since Gourry had met Lina had exploded. Amelia had never seen the quiet and gentle woman so angry! Luna put a hand on Sylphiel’s arm, and her voice lost its steam, and she dissolved into tears as she buried her face into her hands.

Luna locked her gaze with Amelia, “My men are waiting outside, and we will take you to the hermit’s cave. And you will show us the route they took.”

Amelia nodded as tears leaked from her eyes. “Yes.”

Luna stood up and glared at Amelia distastefully, “If you had told us last night we could have found them a lot easier. Now who knows how much of a lead they have.”

Amelia didn’t trust herself to speak, so she just nodded. Suddenly Luna moved real close to Amelia and grabbed her arm roughly, “If you’re lying I will see you rot in jail for making a false statement to the wife of the mayor during a missing person’s case.”

Amelia gasped as Luna’s gripped on her arm tightened, “Are we clear?”

Amelia nodded, “It’s what happened.”

Luna let her go. “Let’s go.” 

Amelia was trembling so badly she was surprised she was able to support her own weight. But she managed to follow them out of the cottage. She barely registered that blood was still coursing down her hand, and she grabbed her handkerchief from her pocket and wrapped in around her hand, thinking as she did that she had just made a terrible mistake. She had lied. And Amelia had a bad feeling the lie was going to shatter around her, just like the tea cup. 

As she closed the door behind her, she saw the table with the shattered cup and spilt tea, and desperately wanted to clean up the mess and piece the cup back together. But she knew there was no way Luna would permit that.

* * *

“Wow, he is disgusting.” One of the men Luna had recruited to search for her sister said as they entered Zel’s cave uninvited. “What is that on his face?”

“It’s not catching, is it?” Another asked.

Amelia’s stomach was in knots as she saw Zel stand up in alarm. “What the…” he started.

Amelia started to cry, “I’m sorry, I had to tell them.”

“Tell them what?” Zel asked.

“About Miss Lina thinking she had killed Miss Luna and Pet…”

“Idiot girl!” Luna screeched as she rounded on Amelia and slapped her hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground.

“What are you doing?” Zel yelled as he knelt down to check on Amelia as she brought her hand to her cheek. She tasted blood in her mouth.

“How the hell am I supposed to verify your information when you go spilling it out like that?”

Amelia glared at her as she stood up, “You never told me to stay quiet.”

“Amelia, what did you do?” Zel asked, and Amelia silently pleaded with him to pick up on what she was doing.

Amelia lowered her head, “I’m sorry. I told Miss Luna everything.”

Zel looked at her, his eyes widening. Then to Amelia’s relief he said, “You little snake. I should have sent you away the moment they arrived.”

“I’m sorry.” Amelia said again.

“Enough of that.” Luna said, “We don’t have time for it. Where did they go off to?”

Amelia’s nerves ratcheted up another notch. Zel took a deep breath, “Petesborough.”

“Show me the cave to get there.” Luna ordered.

“You’ll never make it on your own.” Zel said. “Gourry and Lina can do it because I showed them how to navigate the passages. You’ll get lost without my help.”

Luna stared at Zel suspiciously as her men snickered and laughed, “If you try and fool me I will see you paraded through town in all your freakish glory.”

Zel shrugged as though it was of no matter to him, “Fine. It’s the passage to the left. Good luck.”

Luna looked at the passage warily. “What else do I need to know?”

“About a thousand feet in there will be a fork. You’ll need to hang right, then left. Then you’ll come across a lake, but if you look carefully there’s another cave about twenty feet up that you can easily climb to. It’s a bit difficult to find, but if you’re persistent it will be there. And then…”

“Fine. You’re coming with us.” Luna said. “But remember…”

“Paraded through town in all my freakish glory.” Zel said. “Got it.”

Zel exchanged a glance with Amelia. There was so much to say, but no way to do it without being watched! “I’ll talk to you later.”

Amelia nodded, and watched in silence as he disappeared into the caves with Luna and her men.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to those who left feedback. I honestly had three different paths to go with this because I wasn't sure people would find it that interesting, but now that I see people are interested I set this on the best path. This also means the rating will go up a bit in future chapters, but not too much. Hope you enjoy!


	3. Fleeing From the Banks of Sanity

Gourry could not stop grinning as the sun peaked over the horizon. Yes, he was exhausted and hungry. He had walked at a break neck speed all night with Lina to put as much distance between them and the village as possible after all. And it would be some time before he felt comfortable resting for a bit. But for the first time in years, his life felt _right._ It felt right to be with Lina. It felt right being on the road. And, though he was not a traveling swordsman, he felt as though he was being more authentic than he had living life as the village blacksmith. 

Yet the hope that grew within him at the sight of the rising sun eventually started to give way to worries as his stomach rumbled. He and Lina had both packed some food. But how long would it last? And then how long would their money last? And was it safe for them to find the first village they came across to settle down? Were they being pursued? Would their families breathe a collective sigh of relief when they woke to find them gone? Or would they be angry and pursue them? And if so, just how far would they have to travel to be safe from those who would bring them back to their old lives?

Gourry tried not to let himself be boggled down by his worries. But he couldn’t help wondering if he’d saved Lina from an arranged marriage just to see her starve.

He looked over at Lina, who was mumbling under her breath. He resisted the urge to put his arm around her. “We’re being followed.” She declared.

Gourry frowned. Was it her paranoia, or was it legitimate? He listened but heard nothing unexpected. He started to turn his head when she grabbed his arm, “Don’t. We don’t want them to know we know they’re there.”

“Oh.” Gourry said as his anxiety ratcheted up a notch. 

But if there was anyone else there, they never made a move to show themselves. And by the time they stopped for a quick lunch under an oak tree, Lina had forgotten about the supposed tail. 

It wasn’t long after they’d gotten back on the road again that they come upon a village. They headed towards the merchant district to purchase food and camping supplies. Melting down his sword was not even an option yet. That could wait until they had more time and distance from their former home.

It was when he was haggling for a bedroll that Gourry had the distinct feeling he was being watched. He tried to ignore it for as long as possible, but then he noticed that Lina was looking worriedly behind them. Scared that her sister had caught up to them, Gourry turned around.

He did not see Luna, but still the hair on his arms sat up straight as every pore in his body told him that the man he saw by the silversmith shop was dangerous. But what really troubled Gourry was that while the man seemed familiar, Gourry was fairly certain he had never met him before! His long, purple hair shadowed his eyes, and he walked with a strange stick with a red orb on the top. Gourry was sure he would remember such a distinctive looking stick had he ever been by his smithy. A strange feeling of incongruence settled over Gourry. How could someone he was certain he’d never seen before be so familiar? And why was having such a strong, distrustful reaction to a stranger?

Beside him, Lina whispered, “Xellos.” For a brief moment an image like a buried, forgotten memory flashed before him, but it was gone before he could make any sense of it.

And then she started walking towards him.

“Lina!” Gourry whispered at a yell as he grabbed her arm.

“He’s trouble.” Lina said.

“I can see that. Come on, let’s get our stuff and go.” He said.

Gourry looked at where the strange man had been but saw no one there. He took a deep breath and worked to steady his nerves as he finished his purchase. Once finished, he and Lina hurried out of town, checking behind them to make sure that the man Lina had named Xellos was not following them.

They were quiet for some time. After a while Gourry remembered why the name Xellos was so familiar. Lina had often talked about a Mazoku named Xellos in her adventures. Gourry had thought he was solely a figment of her imagination. But what if there was a man named Xellos who occasionally visited her family that she had taken a dislike to? Someone that he had seen in the village off and on but never been formerly introduced to? It would explain why Gourry found him so familiar but didn’t have any firm memories of him. But what truly troubled Gourry was, what if Xellos was now on his way to their village to tell her sister where they were and what road they were on?

And more to the point, how could he get a rational answer from Lina?

“What do you think Xellos wanted?” he finally asked.

“The wedding.” Lina said.

Gourry stopped walking, “What?”

“It was today. The wedding. With him.” She said.

Gourry resumed walking at a more frantic pace, “He’s the merchant you were supposed to marry?”

“No, not marry.” Lina said irritably, “To keep me with Kitsune.” 

_Okay, that made a lot of sense,_ Gourry thought as he shook his head. It was one of those times where he wondered if there was a kernel of truth to what she was saying or not. Often there was, but when you cut through the layers of paranoia and her ability to see connections between random events, it was so twisted and distorted that he had to find the truth from another person. Still, he had to try.

“So who’s Kitsune?”

“Kitsune! Why don’t you remember? Or Zel, or Amelia, or Sylphiel.” Lina yelled, and then she turned and poked him in the chest, “I AM NOT CRAZY!”

Gourry put his arms on her shoulders, “Shhh. I know. Tell me about Kitsune.”

“We were looking for a powerful spell. But she trapped us. And Gaav, he’s taken over the village. And no one believes me!”

Gourry nodded, “And they want you to marry Xellos to keep you with Kitsune?”

“No, no, no! To distract me.” Lina corrected as she stomped her feet. “From Gaav. Taking over the village.”

Lina spun around and did her strange dance, “Flare Arrow!”

Gourry shook his head. He was getting so frustrated! He bit his tongue to keep from yelling at her as he resumed his walking. It would just make her worse. And, maddening as it was, she couldn’t help it. But he needed her to be rational for once!

“But why does Gaav want to kill me? I don’t understand!” Lina mumbled. “Why can no one tell me why?”

Gourry took a deep breath and tried another approach.

“But Lina, you were supposed to be married today. And we’ve been traveling since dusk last night. There’s no way Xellos could be in the village we just left if he was supposed to be home to marry you today.”

Lina tsked and waved her finger at him, “You forget, he can teleport.”

“Oh.” Gourry said as he decided to give it up as pointless. If they were using teleportation as an explanation, then there was no way he could get to the bottom of what was going on. 

“He ran away. Just like that! He teleported away.” Lina mumbled as she waved her right arm through the air. “Poof! He was gone. And Gaav was there. And I can’t fight, it hurts too much. But I can’t let us all die! How do I get out? How did I get out? My sword of darkness, my Ragna Blade! But I’m too injured, but I did it. How did I do it?”

Gourry left her to her delusions as he turned around. To his relief, it didn’t seem as if Xellos was following them. In fact, the rest of their trip was uneventful. And as dusk set, despite the fact that Gourry was bone tired, he was surprised to find his legs weren’t aching from walking for near on twenty-four hours. He grinned to himself, musing that he was going to feel this in the morning, though!

He and Lina set off the road and walked until they were sure no one would come upon them and set up their bedrolls and broke out their rations. While it took the edge off the hunger, it did not leave him full. But they needed to conserve their supplies. Exhausted, he laid down on his bedroll and stared up at the stars while Lina talked to herself irritably. Gourry was stunned that she wasn’t even trying to sleep. But then, Luna had mentioned that it was really hard to get her to sleep.

Gourry took a deep breath, “Hey Lina, look!”

He pointed to a collection of stars in the sky. She looked at where he was pointing. “What?”

“Those pictures that stars form in the sky. What are they called?”

“Constellations?”

“Yeah! What’s that one there?”

Lina looked, “The Philosopher’s Stone.”

“I bet you know some stories about it.”

Lina considered him for a moment, and then she went and sat beside him. She pointed at a different constellation, “You get better stories from that one.”

“Which is?”

“Ceiphied.”

He put a hand on her shoulder and gently eased her down until she was lying beside him, “Tell me.”

He was so tired that it wasn’t long until her voice had helped him to drift off to sleep. When he woke the next morning, she was soundly asleep in his arms. He smiled as he nuzzled his head into her neck. It felt so right to wake up to her like this. It felt incredible to be in love with the woman he woke up beside. This is the way it should have been. 

Her breathing changed as her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him and smiled, “Morning.” She said.

“Morning.” He replied as he resisted the urge to stroke her cheek. It was so hard! There was a drive within him to have her. But he had to ignore it. He couldn’t be Lina’s lover for the simple matter that he could not risk her getting pregnant. In her mental condition she couldn’t raise a baby. And he couldn’t hold down a job and take care of her and a baby. It was an easy decision to make when he was walking beside her. It was harder to keep as he held her in his arms while she looked at him, lips pursed and eyes expectant.

He shifted his arms, but made the mistake of putting them on her hips. She moved her body towards him in response, placing her face closer to his. He wanted to kiss her so badly! But he had to stop before he started down that path. With a tremendous force of will he placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed himself back a bit. “Breakfast?” he asked.

And he was ravenous. She bit her lip. “Yeah.”

Then she sat up. Gourry was kicking himself, wondering how he could possibly think it would be easy to sleep next to her without wanting more. Well, he decided as he sat up, now it would be easier because he was aware that it would be an issue. Never having slept beside someone he loved before he was caught off guard by how overpowering his emotions would be. But now he knew. He could control himself.

He and Lina rooted in their bags for breakfast. Once again he was left feeling hungry even after he had eaten, but strangely he was not sore. And while, as a blacksmith, he was used to hard labor, how well his body was adapting to walking long distances amazed him. But then, anything to make this journey easier!

Lina threw random “spells” at things she thought she saw as they walked while Gourry worried about how he was going to support them. Should they take a chance and stay for a while at the next town they came upon while he took enough odd jobs until he had saved enough for them to travel even further? Or should they wait? Gourry thought about the strange man they saw the previous day. Stopping at the next village for a brief time seemed like a foolhardy move. But he wasn’t sure how much longer their money would last!

If was getting close to noon when Gourry became aware that there were people in the woods around them. He nervously walked close to Lina. The fact that they were hiding in the woods and not out in the open worried him. And then, before he could fully process it, he and Lina were surrounded by seven men wielding swords. 

“Give us your money and run for it, and we’ll let you live.” Said the biggest and the ugliest man in the group.

Gourry’s stomach sank. It wasn’t the worst possible position they could find themselves in. But it was rather dire. And it was now certain that he and Lina would starve for a period until he could recoup the loss. As his hand went to his wallet, he started to question the wisdom of ever running away with Lina. Perhaps if he had planned this better…

Lina put her hand on his, “What do you think you are doing?”

Gourry’s stomach twisted. “Lina, leave it be.” He pleaded.

Lina looked at the leader, “I’m Lina Inverse, otherwise known as the Bandit Slayer. You’d better turn tail and run!”

The bandits laughed as Gourry’s panic grew, “Look, she’s not right in the head.” Gourry said as he pulled his wallet out for them to see, “Please, we don’t want any trouble.”

Lina glared at him, “What’s gotten into you, Gourry? There’s no way they’re a match for us!”

_Stupid! Stupid!_ Gourry thought to himself, _What did I get us into!?_

“You’re very amusing.” The leader said as he moved towards Lina. To Gourry’s horror he raised his hand to cup her face. But before he could lay a hand on her, Lina grabbed his hand, yanked his arm forward and somehow managed to flip him onto his back.

Gourry blinked. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing! How could Lina, who was tiny and insane, manage to flip a huge, meaty bandit on her own? But then Lina grabbed the bandit’s fallen sword and assumed a fighting stance. But where had Lina learned the stance?

It took the other bandits a moment to process that their leader had just been taken down by a woman who barely reached five feet. “Oh you’re going to pay!” one of them said, “Get her!”

Gourry’s heart rate accelerated, and he couldn’t think of any other time in his life when he’d been so scared. Six men with swords were advancing on Lina! And Lina was out of her mind and believed she could take all of them on!

One of the men struck. She parried and managed to kick him in the shin. He yowled in pain as he hopped on one knee while Lina met the next bandits’ thrust while she turned and lobbed a “spell” at one approaching from the back.

But there was no spell!

Without thinking, Gourry ran and grabbed the man approaching from behind her by the neck. Following nothing but his instinct he twisted his head. There was a popping sound, and then the man went limp. Gourry looked at Lina to see that she was holding her own in a duel with two of the bandits while a third was approaching from her left. Gourry unsheathed his sword and stopped his advancement before he could get to Lina. 

Gourry had been trained in the rudiments of swordplay as a boy. All of the boys in the village had. But it had been years since he’d actually used one! But his body somehow knew what to do. He let the bandit press him back, giving him a false sense of confidence and allowing him to become back to back with Lina.

Then he launched a fierce attack on the bandit, cutting his sword in two effortlessly. The color drained from his face as he considered his fractured sword. He dropped it and turned tail and ran. “Oh, there you go letting them get away!” Lina groaned.

Gourry turned around to see that she appeared unharmed and that she had also managed to subdue the remaining bandits. “Well, what are you going to do with them?” he asked.

“What kind of a question is that?” Lina asked as she started to raid one of the fallen bandit’s pockets. “You know we need to supplement our expenses. Hopefully we’ll be able to eat at a restaurant for lunch!”

She pulled out a fat coin purse and threw it in her bag. Gourry’s world seemed to tilt as a sense of unreality sunk in. How? How had this happened? Neither he nor Lina were trained in swordplay, but somehow they had taken down seven bandits!

“You really let me put in the heavy work there, Gourry.” Lina said as she finished looting the first bandit and moved on to the next, “You’d better not make a habit of slacking off!”

He stared at her, a thousand words stuck in his throat. She sighed in exasperation, “In other words, see what that one you took down had on him! We’re sitting ducks here!”

That roused him! She had a point. If the one who ran away brought back reinforcements, they could wind up in another tight situation. Gourry looked at the bandit he had killed. Killed. He had taken his life without a thought, without even realizing that was what he had set out to do. It had been so easy. Just like that, he had snuffed out a life. He wondered if the bandit had a family.

He felt sick as he started to search the dead man’s pockets. His hands clenched around a full coin purse. Gourry tried to ignore how morally wrong it felt to pull it from the bandit’s pocket and throw it in his bag. But Lina was right. They needed the money. Hadn’t he been obsessing over covering their expenses since they set out on this trip? This would last them for some time!

And besides, it wasn’t as if he and Lina had tracked the bandits down. The bandits had cornered and outnumbered them and had every intention of taking every coin they so desperately needed. And there was no telling how many other innocent travelers they had robbed and left in a tight spot. When he thought of it that way, it seemed like the perfect retribution.

He started to see the dead body as more of a thing as he shook out the clothing and pulled the rings from its fingers. Then he moved to the next body. This man was alive, but knocked out. Gourry swiftly relieved him of his coins and valuables and moved onto the next, until finally they were out of bodies to raid.

“That bandit ran off to the west.” Lina said.

Gourry looked ahead to where the road forked. “Then I guess we’ll head east.”

Lina nodded. And side by side they walked. Gourry bit back his inquiries on where she’d learned to use the sword. It would likely irritate her, as it would bring into focus the reality that she wasn’t a bad ass sorceress and sword fighter. But it troubled him. There was no way Lina should have been able to do that!

And there was no way he should have, either. But somehow his body had reacted instinctively. It was like when he was striking the metal he was working on into a sword. He didn’t have to think too much about what he was doing. Through years of work his body had adapted to a rhythm when he was working. The color and the heat and the smell of the metal all talked to him and told him what he needed to do, and he could react so instinctively he didn’t need to think about it like he had when he was training. It was like that when he had taken the bandits down. But unlike with smithing, he had never trained for years in combat!

Just like his body seemed to be adapted to walking long distances, his body was also adapted to swordfighting. But how?

Fear rose within him. What if he had imagined the whole situation? What if Lina was somehow bringing him into her delusions? Was insanity contagious? He’d heard from several people that Lina had been rather lucid until she turned thirteen. She had been headstrong and free spirited, but sane. What if whatever happened to her when she was thirteen was happening to him now?

Gourry opened his bags and found the coin purses and other items he had looted from the bandits within. It comforted him for a moment. But what if he was still hallucinating? What if they were still just a figment of his imagination? How could he ever know for sure?

Lina suddenly stopped in her tracks, “Damn, I can’t believe I forgot to check.”

“What?”

“One of those bandits nicked me.” She said as she looked at her arm, which was bleeding, “Nothing too bad, though. Recovery!”

But nothing happened. Gourry looked at Lina’s arm. It still continued to bleed. With a sigh he got out his handkerchief and wrapped it around the wound. As he did, he wondered why, if he was going insane, did he not see a working Recovery spell? Lina seemed to see the spells she lobbed. Did that mean he was still lucid? Had they really taken down a group of bandits? Or was he just not as crazy as Lina yet?

But then, if they really had taken down seven bandits together, then wouldn’t that mean something larger was at play?

_Now you’re really being ridiculous!_ He thought.

Lina sighed, “I keep forgetting that Mazenda sealed my powers. It’s so frustrating! I’ve just been so useless without them!”

“But Lina, we took down Mazenda together with that feint with the Sword of Light…” Gourry’s voice trailed off as a vivid memory arose of fighting a monstrous looking purple woman on a strange, floating island. The memory was so vivid that it encompassed his field of vision, completely suppressing the reality of the world they were actually living in. “We didn’t have to talk about it. I just knew what you wanted to do. We’re connected, whether we like it or not. And now here’s Kanzeil.”

Lina looked at him, a desperate hope in her eyes, “You remember! You really remember!”

Suddenly the vision vanished. Gourry was thoroughly rattled now. He sat down by the side of the road as he shook uncontrollably, “What just happened?”

“Don’t let it go!” she said, “Hang onto it!”

“No,” he said yelled, “Lina, it’s crazy. It feels horrible!”

“It’s not, we did it! We defeated Mazenda! And then we faced down Kanzeil. We’re facing Kanzeil. Or did we take him down? How did we take him down?”

He shook his head and started wondering if he had doomed the two of them to go wandering from village to village, spouting crazy stories about monsters as they begged for food. Was he crazy to think that he could have saved Lina? He looked at Lina as she suddenly held her temples and then looked over at a tree and started to yell at it. He thought about how much he loved her. He thought about his promise to follow her to the ends of the earth. But was he truly willing to flee from the banks of sanity for her?


	4. Hatred

Zelgadis felt his skin itch as he led the group through the caves. He resisted the urge to scratch it, telling himself it was all in his mind. Unfortunately the sniggers and jeers from Luna’s men were not. They didn’t even bother to make an effort to lower their voices. No, they talked loudly with each other, speculating about whether or not he was contagious, talking about how hideous he was, even proclaiming that had they been afflicted, they would have had the decency to die. Zel bit his tongue, and resolved to get them to Petesborough and ditch them as soon as possible. And then it would be time to find another place to disappear to.

Zel tried to ignore how lonely the thought made him. He had just accustomed himself to a life of isolation when he met Lina, Gourry and Amelia. He found an acceptance with them he never thought he would. But of course, it was doomed. He would do what he could to help his friends, to repay them for their companionship. And then he would disappear, and become re-accustomed to loneliness.

His only regret would be not parting under better circumstances with Amelia. But she deserved better than life with a freak. 

He rounded a curve, and was stunned to see a man sitting on a rocky ledge jutting from the cave wall. A feeling of hatred washed over Zelgadis that he did not understand. He was certain he’d never seen the man before in his life. But Zel hated every inch of him, from his perfect purple hair to his shit eating grin to his ridiculous staff. Behind him the group stopped. Luna stepped forward. “Xellos?” she asked, panic besieging her voice. “What are you doing here?”

“Come now, Luna, is that any way to greet your future brother-in-law?” Xellos asked.

Zel’s eyes widened. He was the man Lina was supposed to marry?

“Only, by now it should have been official.” Xellos stated. 

“Lina has taken ill.” Luna said. “There’s a rare medicine in these caves that we are searching for. I’m sorry for now contacting you sooner.”

“Is that so?” Xellos asked, “Then how is it I saw her today in Enilria with the village blacksmith?”

“Enilria!” Luna yelled, “Wait, that’s a day’s journey in the opposite direction of Petesborough.”

Zel’s stomach fell. Luna shook her head, “Wait a minute, how could you have been in Enilria and gotten here to tell us?”

Xellos shrugged, “When you know these caves as well as I do, you know a lot of little short cuts.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Luna asked.

“I could ask the same of you. It appears you are heading to Petesborough. Were you expecting to find your sister there, perhaps?” Xellos grinned, “Someone is lying, but it’s not me.”

“Let me explain,” Luna said.

Xellos waved his finger in her face dismissively. “Now, now, Luna. It appears that this union was simply not meant to be. Perhaps if you had been pointed in the right direction this morning the situation could have been salvaged, but now it’s too late.”

Luna turned red with rage as she looked at her men and pointed at Zel, “Seize him.”

The men looked at each other in fear at the thought of touching him, “You do it.” One of them said.

“No, you!”

For once, Zel was glad for his cursed skin as they argued about having to touch him. Unfortunately, in the close confines of the cave with Xellos in front of him and the rest of the men behind him, he really didn’t have any great choices on where to run. Banking on the fact that running past one man would be easier than six, he bolted towards Xellos. After all, what were the chances he would risk touching him?

Not good it turned out. But then, Xellos didn’t need to. Xellos neatly moved his staff in Zel’s path. In the narrow cave, there was little that Zel could do to avoid it. He fell face forward, scraping his skin against the harsh cave floor as he did.

“Get him now, before you regret it!” Luna barked.

A well of despair opened within Zel as he felt someone tie his hands behind his back. From behind him he heard Luna ask, “How long ago did you see them? How quickly can you get us to Enilria?”

“Perhaps you misunderstood me, Luna.” Xellos said, his voicing taking a dangerous edge as Zel was hauled to his feet. Zel could feel blood seeping from the cuts and scrapes on his hands. “I have no intention of marrying a runaway bride. I just came here to inform that I have called the wedding off, and why. Now, do forgive me, but I have other pressing matters to attend to. Ta-ta!”

Luna’s fists clenched by her side and Xellos walked away from them and quickly disappeared behind the bend. “Back the way we came then.” Luna eventually sputtered. And then she looked at Zel, loathing etched over her face. “I’ve got some consequences to mete out.”

* * *

Amelia’s hands were shaking so much that she could not transcribe the document she was working on. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, got up, and walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water. As Amelia passed the window she noticed Luna coming down the road with a group of men. Amelia’s stomach sank. To say Luna looked mad was a great understatement!

In a matter of seconds Luna was pounding on the door. Amelia stood where she was, shaking with fear as her father poked his head out of his office. “Who could that be?”

Luna threw the door open and swiftly walked to Amelia, and grabbed her arms harshly as she reached her, “You lying little wench!”

Luna smacked her across the face. Amelia brought her hand to her burning cheek as Phil stepped out of his office, “What is going on here?” he roared as he put himself between Luna and his daughter.

“Your daughter lied to me! She told me Lina went to Petesborough! Turns out she was in Enilrea! Which is in the opposite direction!” Luna yelled.

Amelia moved to stand beside her father, “Well what did you expect? You didn’t believe me when I told you the truth, and you kept pressing, so I didn’t know what to say!”

Luna’s hair seemed to stand on end, “Don’t you go blaming me for this! You’re under arrest.”

“What?” Phil demanded. “You can’t do this!”

“She lied to the mayor’s wife during a missing person’s case.” Luna said as the men came towards Amelia bearing chains, “I warned her. So I can and I will.”

“I’m going to talk to my brother about this.” Phil said as one of the men chained Amelia’s hands behind her back. Amelia couldn’t think, couldn’t move. This couldn’t be happening! She was always so careful to be good and walk the right path. How could she end up in jail?

Phil gently grasped Amelia by the shoulders. “I’m going to get you out. By tonight, tops.”

Amelia nodded dumbly. And then Luna was leading her out of the house, surrounded by guards. As if she were some sort of dangerous criminal! Amelia blinked away tears as the townspeople stopped what they were doing to watch, muttering among themselves as they did. They seemed to appraise her condemningly as she walked through the crowd, which seemed to grow bigger by the minute. Some shook their heads in disapproval.

Tears started to fall down her face. Had lying really been enough to warrant this? But then, a lie was a lie. And only bad people tell them. What if she wasn’t as good as she always thought she was? The lie had hurt Sylphiel and Luna, and worse, she had roped Zelgadis into it.

Amelia suddenly felt sick. Where was Zelgadis? She was afraid to ask!

They got to the jail, a small, ramshackle building at the end of town. Amelia never liked walking past it. It reeked of body waste and foulness. It was all she could do to keep from gagging as she walked in. Luna led her to a tiny cell. “Get in.”

Amelia did as told and felt her heart sink as the bars closed and she heard the click of a key. She was now trapped in this horrible place! She looked around the bare cell that was covered in grime and rot. How could she have ended up here?

“How do you like it, Princess?” Luna asked.

Amelia couldn’t speak. Luna grinned, “Look out the window.”

Amelia did. She nearly collapsed. She hadn’t thought it could get any worse! But Zel was outside, his arms tied in front of him and connected with the saddle of a horse placed in front of him. He had been stripped down to a pair of briefs. Luna’s threat to parade him through the town in his freakish glory echoed through Amelia’s mind. “Oh no, please!”

“He made his choice. Just like you did.” Luna said with satisfaction. Then she looked at one of her men, “Make sure she watches. If she refuses, well, we have cells that are so tiny you can’t fully stand in them. I hear it becomes agonizing after a while.”

Tears of hatred ran down Amelia’s face as she watched as Luna left the jail and mounted the horse. Yet, much as she hated Luna, Amelia wondered just how evil she was to have allowed this to happen to Zelgadis.

* * *

Sylphiel stirred, flashing briefly to consciousness. She found herself in her parents’ cottage. And then she remembered why she was at her parents’ cottage and not her own home. She moaned and turned around, determined to go back to sleep. From outside her door she heard her parents talking.

“What’s going on out there?” her mother asked.

“Luna just arrested Amelia for lying about Lina’s whereabouts.” Eruk explained.

Sylphiel’s eyes widened as their words broke through the fog in her mind. Amelia had been arrested? Sylphiel trembled. Her feelings towards the scribe’s daughter were mixed. Growing up she had been fond of her, though they had never been friends. But as Amelia and Gourry became drawn into Lina’s world, Sylphiel was baffled and frustrated with both of them. But she certainly did not want to see her arrested. And what would Luna do to the poor hermit? Sylphiel had felt an overwhelming pity for him since Gourry had first mentioned his existence to her. It was easier for her to see the appeal Lina’s world held for him.

But then her mother asked the question she was dying to know, “Did they find them?”

“No. That’s the problem. And now they have such a lead on them that Luna has little chance of tracking them down. She’s still sending men out, but in the meantime she is determined to make an example of Amelia and the hermit it seems.”

A strange, unexpected feeling rose within Sylphiel. _Little chance of tracking them down…So that means…_

“Do they have any idea where they are?

“Apparently they were spotted a day’s journey away in Enilrea. But considering how long it will take to get there, and how much of a lead they will gain, added to the fact that no one seems to have any idea about where they are going, it’s highly unlikely we’ll be able to track them down.”

Sylphiel laughed, a nervous, breathy sound.

“Sylphiel?” her mother said as she came into the room. Sylphiel sat up on the bed and embraced her as relief ran rampant within her. “What is it?”

“I’m free.” Sylphiel said.

“What?” her mother said, mystified.

“I don’t think I realized until now. But I could spend the rest of my life trying to make him love me, or I could move on.”

“But he jilted you!” her mother protested.

Sylphiel bristled as the pain bubbled to the surface, “I know.” It still hurt like hell, “But if he’s gone it will fade. But if he comes back, if he’s here every day again and still doesn’t love me, Mama, that was so horrible. But if he’s gone, then I don’t have to live like that! I can move on.”

Sylphiel stood up and grabbed her kerchief. “Where are you going?” her mother demanded.

“I have to speak to Luna.”

* * *

_Yes, get your fill of looking at the freak!_ Zel thought hatefully as he walked behind Luna’s stallion and ate the dust he kicked up. It harshly scratched his lungs, and Zel worried that he was going to cough them up. He did his best to ignore the crowd as they stared at him in disgust and horror. But it was harder to ignore the rotten fruits, vegetables, eggs and the occasional rock that was hurled at him. 

Cries of freak, toad, and demon rang through the group. Occasionally Luna would stoke them on as she would yell about how he was a liar and how he’d corrupted the scribe’s daughter. Zel feared that Luna would whip them into such a frenzy that they would kill him!

From his left, Zel watched as a tall, stately woman broke from the crowd. He felt as though he had been punched in the gut. Were they going to surround and beat him now? But the woman didn’t walk to him. Instead she got in Luna’s path and grabbed the horse’s bridle. “Stop, please stop!” she said.

“Sylphiel?” Luna asked, and Zel recognized the name of Gourry’s wife. Zel realized this was about to get very bad.

“There’s no reason for this!” Sylphiel pleaded. “He’s harmless. Let him go.”

Zel couldn’t believe what he was hearing! Was Sylphiel really intervening on his behalf? 

Luna looked just as surprised, “Didn’t you hear? He lied! Because of him we lost our best chance to bring your husband back.”

“I heard.” Sylphiel said, “But this won’t bring him back. It won’t…” Sylphiel bit her lip and struggled to compose herself, “It won’t make him love me.”

Luna scowled, “You never had the guts to keep him! And now you don’t have the guts to get him back. I thought this morning…”

“Please,” Sylphiel said as tears started to fall down her face, “It’s over. Let it go. Release Amelia. Release the hermit. Call off your men. Let’s move on.”

“Move on?” Luna countered, “I will not rest until we have recovered them, and you have your explanation!”

Sylphiel shook her head, “I have my explanation.”

Zel felt a change in the air as Sylphiel turned to address the considerably large crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen. As you know, my husband ran off with Lina last night. What you don’t know is that the reason he did this was because she was a witch who had put him under her spell!”

“What?” Luna screamed. Zel smiled in satisfaction. While the ignominy of having a family member stricken with insanity was not a good mark for a family, witchcraft was by far worse.

Sylphiel continued, “Think about it? How else could a crazy woman steal a man from someone like me?! A lunatic couldn’t manage to do it.” People in the crowd nodded in agreement as Luna screamed, “Lies!”

Undaunted, Sylphiel continued, “Lina feigned insanity to cover her wicked activities. Her family went along with it because they didn’t want you to know the truth! It was witchery! She also placed the hermit and Amelia under a spell. But now I will break it.”

Luna dismounted from her horse and grabbed Sylphiel by the arm. Sylphiel shook her off. Luna was about to move again, but was stopped when the townspeople yelled, “Let her do it! Let her purify the hermit!”

Zelgadis watched incredulously as Sylphiel walked up to him. She thrust an amulet in his face and then made a great theatrical performance of speaking in a strange language. She looked at him meaningfully. Zel felt put on the spot. But then he managed to step back as though hit by an invisible force before yelling, “I’m cured! You lifted the spell!”

Sylphiel smiled at him. The crowd went wild. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“Zelgadis Greywards.”

Sylphiel stunned him by grabbing his hand, “He’s seen our worst side. Let us show this newly purified man our best one. His name is Zelgadis Greywards! Please, treat him kindly.”

Zel couldn’t believe what was happening. He was so used to encountering hatred. But as he listened to the crowd, he found that their locus of hatred had spread. Now they were talking about how they would have to kill Lina on sight if she ever returned to their village!

“Come, let us go to the jail to help Amelia!” Sylphiel said.

But before she could make it too far, Luna grabbed her arm, “What did you do?” she asked, panic seeped into her voice.

“I told you. If I can’t make him love me, then I don’t ever want to see him or your sister again. So I gave you a very good reason to call off the search.” Sylphiel explained quietly. “Or are you wanting to bring your sister back just to see her burn to death?”

Luna’s arm fell to her side before it clenched into a fist. “You picked the wrong family to mess with.”

“Release him.” She ordered.

“Make me!” 

Sylphiel looked at the crowd, “Release Zelgadis!” 

Someone bearing a knife broke from the crowd and cut the rope tying Zel to the horse. And then he cut the bindings on his wrists. Zel was unusually overcome with emotion as someone else came and wrapped a blanket around him. “Come on.” A woman who wore the clothing of a healer said, “You have some nasty bruises. Let me patch you up.”

The shock of receiving such kindness after experiencing such cruelty was jarring. Hadn’t the crowd been out for his blood mere seconds before? How had Sylphiel managed to placate them so thoroughly? Or were they so tired of being cowed by Luna that they were willing to follow the lead of the first person to stand up to her?

The healer led Zel off to her shop, while Sylphiel walked to the jail, a small crowd in her wake, as Luna watched and wondered what to do next.


	5. At the World's End

Lina had wanted to eat first before finding an inn. And to tell the truth, so had Gourry. He was starving! But he felt it was imperative that they book an inn first because he just couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he was hallucinating the stolen money. If they ate first they would find themselves in a world of hurt when the bill came if they couldn’t cover it. But since they would have to put cash upfront to book an inn, he could ensure they avoided any embarrassing encounters. 

It would also help him figure out whether or not the incident with the bandits was a delusion. 

“But Gourry, my poor stomach doesn’t want to wait! I’m so hungry! I may just drop dead from malnutrition in the street!” Lina whined all the way to the inn while Gourry ignored her. It was a relief when they found the inn, and though it looked far from respectable, it would be vastly preferable to sleeping out in the open if bandits were on the prowl.

Gourry entered with Lina. The innkeeper, a short and bony man who would have looked at home in a morgue, smiled at them, “How may I help you?”

“We’d like to book a room for two for one night.”

“Wonderful. It will be ten gold pieces for the night. Check out will be at noon.”

Gourry took a deep breath to drive the butterflies in his stomach away and took the money out of the earnings from which they’d looted from the bandits. He met the innkeeper’s gaze as he handed it over, hoping he didn’t betray how nervous he was feeling. Gourry felt slightly sick as the other man counted out the coins, but then he pocketed them and wrote something down in his ledger before handing them a room key, “Room 207. It will be up the stairs and to your left.”

“Thanks.” Gourry whispered as a strange feeling encompassed him. 

“Now can we finally eat?” Lina asked snarkily.

“Yeah.” Gourry nodded. “Anywhere. You pick.”

“Perfect!”

He walked out with her, stunned. The innkeeper had accepted their payment. Meaning that they really had killed and looted a bandit gang earlier! The possibility that the innkeeper and town were part of some shared delusion just didn’t seem possible. Because the more he thought about it, the more that he and Lina had shared a delusion strained credulity enough. It would have to mean that their minds were joined somehow.

And it wasn’t possible for people’s mind to be joined in such a manner! Or was it? And if that was possible, then why wasn’t it possible that Lina really was a sorceress who couldn’t access her powers for some reason? Really, if impossible things started to become possible, then anything would go!

All the same, it was still strange that he and Lina were able to take down a bandit gang on their own. That in and of itself defied belief. And then there was that brief flash of a memory…

Gourry shook his head and decided to focus on his surroundings. He scanned the area around them and found nothing out of the ordinary. But the feeling that something was very wrong with the world would not abate. But what truly scared him was, even if there was something wrong with the world, how would he know? Whatever was going on seemed so large and what his senses could detect so limited that it was impossible to figure out! Forget forming a plan of action. And talking to Lina was even less help. One minute she was certain Gaav was the culprit, the next Kitsune, the next Dynast.

“Here!” Lina said as she started tugging at his arm, “Whatever is cooking in there, it smells good!”

Gourry patted her hand and smiled. She was right about it smelling good, “I’m right beside you.”

They enjoyed a big meal together, but at the end of it Gourry still didn’t feel full! Still, Gourry did not want to blow all of their earnings on food and risk having to confront another bandit gang to raise more funds, so rather than eating till sated they walked to the inn. The street lamps were being lit as they approached the inn, bringing out a rather disreputable crowd. His eyes fell on a woman dressed in an obscenely low cut dress that called attention to her impressive assets. Her long black hair fell to her waist and everything about her screamed night worker. He hurried Lina along into the inn. It was not the sort of company he wanted to mix with.

* * *

It was still too early to get out of bed, so Gourry lay awake, staring at the ceiling and doing his best to ignore how good Lina felt cuddled up to him, her head resting on his chest. He’d been so tired he’d been able to fall asleep easily enough. It was the dreams that woke him up. Dreams of an endless wasteland that’d he’d never been to. Dreams of his family dressed in strange attire as they fought over a sword passed down through the generations. A magic sword. The Sword of Light.

Hadn’t Lina mentioned he fought with such a weapon? But she’d never said anything about his family fighting. Or had she?

No. She hadn’t. Her fantasies had always focused exclusively on her legendary adventures with a minimum of background information for everyone else. Amelia only fleshed out the royal family drama so well because of her own flare for creative storytelling. No, Lina had never bothered to provide a background story for him. All she had ever come up with was that the Sword of Light was a family possession.

And besides all that, the dream didn’t seem like just a dream. It seemed like a horrible memory that replayed over and over in one’s dreams. But it still made no sense! In the dream his brother, Gunther, had died! But Gunther was alive! Or was he? The dream felt like a nightmare inspired by a real trauma. And what truly scared Gourry was that the dream seemed like the truth while the world he was living in seemed like a lie! Something about Gunther being dead made more sense than Gunther being alive.

Gourry took a deep breath as he started stroking Lina’s hair as he tried to put things in order. He thought about the dream. About being in the Elmekian Empire. A vivid vision rose in his mind of a barren desert populated by ugly mud brick houses. Of running through the streets. Of running home because he’d heard that his family was fighting again. And then suddenly a barrage of memories hit him in a multitude of pieces. At one point Gourry felt like he was witnessing the middle of the story, and then the beginning before jumping to the end and then back to somewhere else. It felt impossible to shift through and make sense of!

Gourry felt sick and gave up on trying to sort out the memory and focused instead on Lina lying on his chest again as the visions receded. He was breathing heavily now. Daylight was just starting to creep through the window. And Gourry’s alarm was rising.

Something was very, very wrong with the world. 

“Oh ho ho ho!”

Gourry stiffened in bed as Lina sat up as shrill laugh wafted from the courtyard. “What the hell?” Gourry asked as Lina said, “That voice!”

Whoever was in the courtyard kept laughing that annoying, obnoxious laugh as Lina leapt out of bed and grabbed her robe. “Naga!” 

“Lina!” Gourry called as Lina opened the door. He ran after her as she flew across the hallway and down the stairs. When they got to the courtyard Gourry saw the same street walker he’d spotted the previous night laughing loudly while holding a money sack. He wondered if she was drunk. She did reek of alcohol. He put a hand on Lina’s shoulder to hold her back.

“I won’t stop laughing until this bag is full of gold!” the woman said as she noticed them approach as other patrons opened their windows to tell her to shut up. And then her face changed as she saw Lina. “Lina?”

“Naga!” Lina said, “What are you doing here?”

“Making money.” She said, “For some reason it’s a lot harder to come by now.”

“Making money? By what? Annoying people until they pay you to leave them alone?”

“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” Naga said. “It buys my liqour.”

Gourry was confused. “Lina, who is this?”

“Naga. I used to travel with her before I met you. Like that time we fought Joyrock.”

Naga laughed again. Gourry shuddered and realized that she was about to tear Lina’s delusions apart. “And that tip about the hot springs that was supposed to grow your breasts? A complete bust! I see you still haven’t had any luck there! Looks like you still somehow managed to find someone to shack up with though.”

Lina folded her arms across her chest as she blushed while Gourry blinked. Had she just went along with Lina’s delusion? Or did she actually remember it?

“Yeah, and if I ever see Rowdy again, or did I see him again? And he had the Sword of Light, no, Gourry, you have the Sword of Light…”

“Rowdy’s a family name.” Gourry said, mystified. His father had lamented that he’d never passed down the name to his own sons. There were simply too many family members to honor and his father had always assumed he’d have more boys than he did and he and his brothers were told often that when they had their first son, they would have to name him Rowdy. “How did you know that?”

“I didn’t. I fought with a man from the past named Rowdy. Though now that I think about it, it makes sense you’re related. Why did I never think about it before?” Lina shook her head as Gourry took a step back and looked at Naga.

“D-do you know what she’s talking about?”

“Yeah.” Naga ran a hand through her hair, “It comes in bits and pieces in random order.”

“It’s so confusing.” Lina said. “Everyone thinks I’m crazy.”

“It gets better with practice.” Naga said, “I don’t know what it is about this place.”

“This place?” Lina repeated.

“No magic. No Mazoku. It was worst when I first got here. I kept seeing this world and the real world at the same time. It was so disorienting. I can figure out which is which better now.”

“But those things exist! I’m a sorceress!”

Naga laughed, “Not here, Lina. We’re just boring, ordinary girls. There’s a reason I’m annoying sleepy travelers for cash and not using my sorcery to dredge some up! Our powers don’t work here!” Naga moved close to Lina, “But if you’re thinking of annoying people for cash, pick another town to haunt. This one is mine!”

Gourry leaned against the wall as the weight of all he was hearing hit him. Either Lina had somehow managed to find the one other person in the world who had the same delusions she did, or there really was something very wrong with the world.

“But you remember?” Lina said.

Naga nodded, “As much as I can.”

Lina turned and looked at Gourry accusingly, “Then why don’t you remember?”

Gourry took a deep breath, “I’m starting too. I think. Growing up in the Elmekian Empire. Mazenda. I have two different memories of growing up, one in the village, one in Elmekia. But Lina, how do we know for certain which is which?”

“This isn’t real.” Lina said. “And I’m not going to let Kitsune keep us here.”

_Kitsune?_

That name again. Gourry took a deep breath, “Lina, what can you tell me about Kitsune?”

“Kitsune! Kitsune!” Lina yelled, “Idiot! Why don’t you remember! That spell.”

“There is no spell. She suckered me in, too.” Naga agreed.

Lina shook her head, “I always wondered which of you was the bigger idiot. Now I have my answer. Yeah, she suckered us.”

Then Lina and Naga both spun around and did the same strange dance, “FLARE ARROW!” Lina cried as Naga yelled, “FREEZE ARROW!”

“Did we get them?” Lina asked.

“Damn, I hate it when that happens.” Naga said, “Lina, don’t you understand, this is why everyone thinks we’re crazy!” 

Gourry stared at them, mouth agape. Lina said, “So what are we going to do today?”

“Wait, wait!” Gourry said, “You both just shot a flare arrow or something at nothing!”

“Did we?” Naga said.

“There was a beastman!” Lina insisted.

Gourry shook his head. “But what about Kitsune? She said she trapped you with promises of some sort of powerful spell.”

“Oh that.” Lina said as she scratched her chin. “Well, it’s like you said. She trapped us.”

Gourry shook his head, “If we are trapped, how are we going to get out?”

“It’s not that difficult.” Lina said, “We just keep walking! But after we’ve had breakfast!”

Gourry put his hand to his brow and finally felt him bend to the inevitable. Besides. As always these days, he was ravenous.

* * *

Lina muttered under her breath as Naga examined her nails as they walked. Truthfully, Gourry was a bit embarrassed to have someone like Naga tagging along with them. The last thing he needed was someone thinking he was a pimp escorting his ladies through the country. But she had shared memories with Lina. And they both remembered something about this fishy Kitsune person. And if he was going to get to the bottom of this, then he needed to keep Naga with the group.

As for getting to the bottom of this, it just didn’t seem possible. The simplest explanation was that Lina was crazy, Naga was the same brand of crazy, and he was coming down with it. But there were too many strange things happening for that to make sense anymore. No, it seemed as though their minds were being messed with.

The problem being, when your mind is compromised, how on earth are you supposed to tell what is real and what is not?

_Especially since I’m not the thinker in the group,_ Gourry bemoaned.

But what really troubled Gourry was why only Lina and Naga seemed to remember anything about this supposed other world until recently. While Lina claimed to be a sorceress, and Naga seemed to have a stake on the same claim, Lina also had pronounced that Amelia, Zel and even Sylphiel had used sorcery. So even if Lina was a sorceress, and if the others genuinely were sorcerers, then their magical power wasn’t causing the same confusion for Zel, Amelia and Sylphiel as it was for Lina and Naga.

Perhaps length of time? From some of the things Naga said, it would seem she had been here longer and had more time to adjust. Had Lina somehow stumbled onto this place without him, and then he’d followed her and that was why he was just now starting to remember things?

But how could he know for certain?

Lina suddenly veered off the path. “Lina, where are you going?” he asked.

“We need to go this way.” She said.

“Yeah.” Naga said, “This distortion isn’t as bad here.”

Lina exhaled, “I’m glad you notice it too.”

Gourry had no idea what they were talking about, but followed them quietly. “The distortion may be less but there’s also a creepy cave close by. I don’t like being here.” Naga said as she shuddered.

“A creepy cave?” Lina asked, “Hm.”

“What are you thinking, Lina?” Gourry asked.

“That someone doesn’t want us to go in that cave.” Lina said, “So take me to it.”

Naga shrugged, “Suit yourself. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Nervous as Gourry was, he also couldn’t help but notice that Lina was quieter. She wasn’t mumbling to herself or shooting off random “spells.” She also just seemed more coherent. More like Lina as her genuine self. But still. Gourry was worried about this ominous sounding cave. What if they met whoever was pulling the strings?

Gourry shook his head and marveled at himself. A few days ago he would have written himself off as crazy! And now here he was, following this fools’ errand. Either something ground shaking was going to happen, or a big fat nothing. 

Naga stopped as she reached the cave and shuddered, “Covered in blood as always.”

Gourry and Lina considered the cave. It was a dank, creepy looking hell mouth structure covered in blood stains and, he noted as Lina grabbed his hand, slugs. “Slugs!” Lina screeched.

Naga shook her head and nonchalantly said, “Those were not there before.”

“Lina,” Gourry said. He’d known about her slug phobia since they found some in the cave that Zel hid in. Or was it in the basement of Halciform’s mansion? Gourry shook his head to stop the surge of memories relating to Halciform’s mansion, not to mention his questions about whether any of it had been real. He needed to focus! It didn’t matter where he’d learned it. What mattered was that Lina had a phobia of slugs. “We don’t have to go in there.”

“Yes, yes we do.” Lina said, her voice fast and panicky, “Look, Naga freaks out when she sees blood. And this cave was always bloodstained, but slug free. But now that I’m here, and there’s also slugs. Why?”

“To keep us away.” Naga whispered.

Lina nodded and took a deep breath, “This means we have to investigate.”

A million protests ran through Gourry’s mind. There was undoubtedly something dangerous about that cave, and the prospect of running into a mad serial killer and becoming the next victims was not something he could dismiss. But before he could say anything, Lina balled her hands into fists and walked to the cave.

“Lina…” _I promised to follow her anywhere._ “Wait.”

He caught up to her easily and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m here.”

She seemed to relax a little, and then she walked right into the gaping mouth. He followed behind, and he sensed Naga bringing up the rear. From ahead of him Lina groan, but the cave quickly became narrow and dark and it was hard for him to make much detail out. “Lina?”

“We’re going to have to crawl through it.” She said, sounding sick, “And there’s slugs all over the cave floor.”

Gourry groaned internally. Considering how tall he was, a tight fit for Lina would be even more claustrophobic for him! Plus he disliked the idea of being trapped in a tiny place with no easy exits. It was suicide! But he felt Lina move forward as she got down on hands and knees to crawl, letting out another moan as her hand touched the slimy cave floor.

“I-I can’t! It’s covered in blood!” Naga said, the panic in her voice evident.

“Just think about something else.” Lina said, her voice strained as Gourry was forced to a snake crawl behind her. He worried that the cave was going to get so narrow that he would become trapped in the passage!

Panic rose through him as ahead of him Lina’s breathing became ragged and fast as she made a crying sound. But then he couldn’t blame her. Every time he put his hand down it fell on some fat slug. “Lina?”

“Just keep…moving forward.” She hissed. She continued to cry, but he could just discern her figure trudging ahead.

Gourry broke into a cold sweat as the narrow passage became even tighter. He started to scrap the skin off his knuckles as he pulled himself through the passage. Finally Lina called, “I can see some light.”

“You’d better not be jerking us around after forcing us into this cave!” Naga shouted.

“I didn’t force anyone!” Lina said, “You were just too chicken to be left alone!”

“Whaddaya mean by that, pipsqueak?”

“Oh, when I get out I’m going to…”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I see the exit!” Lina said.

Ahead of him he saw Lina’s silhouette as she stood up, and he got hit in the face with a long piece of fabric that confused him until he got up himself as saw she was wearing a billowing cape. His clothes felt heavier as he walked out of the cave and into the light and he realized he was wearing armor. But of course he was wearing armor! He was a swordsman!

Lina was standing in a forest dressed in her typical sorceress garb, looking herself up and down. “No trace of slug slime.” She muttered, “Was it all part of the illusion?”

Naga came out and Gourry’s jaw dropped. And he’d thought the low cut dress that she was wearing in that place was indecent! Naga’s outfit made Martina’s seem modest!

_Wait, Martina?_

Lina closed her eyes in relief, “There’s only one world here.”

Naga nodded, “Yeah, it’s gone. And all my memories…”

“…Are back.”

“Mine too.” Gourry said, and then he became very confused. He had two different sets of life experience memories! “Lina! Lina, what just happened? What does this mean?”

Lina opened her eyes and a strange look set in them as she said, “It means I was never crazy!”

“Indeed!” Xellos said as he appeared standing on a tree branch, “It also appears that you three are the first ones to escape Kitsune. Granted, she likely let you go because she knew you would have to go back for your friends. And what a treat that will be for her!”


	6. Cold

_What a horrible place,_ Sylphiel thought with a shudder as she walked into the jail and started breathing in through her mouth to avoid inhaling the putrid stink as much as possible. A guard stood to attention as she entered and Amelia walked the brief distance from the window to the bars of her cell. She looked miserable, her eyes were red rimmed and her face was puffy as she looked at Sylphiel with an expression of disbelief. “How did you stop her?” she asked incredulously.

Sylphiel smiled, “I broke the spell that Lina had placed on Mr. Greywards.” 

Amelia looked confused, “Spell?”

Sylphiel nodded, “Lina is an evil witch. She placed a spell on you, Mr. Greywards and my husband to make them do her bidding. But now I’m going to cleanse you.”

Amelia shook her head and said, “Lina did no such thing!” as Luna fought her way through the crowd of townspeople to where Sylphiel was standing as the guard looked at her for directions.

Sylphiel made eye contact with Amelia, begging her to play along as she started doing the same song and dance routine she had with Zelgadis. But Amelia just stared at her in shock. Sylphiel locked eyes with her, “Amelia, please!”

Amelia shook her head as tears continued to dribble from her eyes, “I can’t. I can’t lie! I’m in here because I lied!”

Sylphiel grabbed her hands, “You’re here because Lina put a spell on you. And I can get you out, but you just have to let me cleanse you!”

But Amelia shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t lie anymore, I can’t!”

“There’s a good girl.” Luna said to Amelia before setting her sights on Sylphiel, “And now that’s enough of this charade! And that’s all this is, a charade played by a desperate, jilted wife to save face.”

Sylphiel reddened as Amelia lowered her head. Sylphiel opened her mouth to retort when she heard Phil’s booming voice from outside the jail crying, “Out of the way! Let us through!”

In seconds Phil was in the jail, followed by Christopher. “Let her out.” Christopher ordered the guard.

“She lied during a missing person’s investigation!” Luna insisted.

“That’s enough!” Christopher said, “Your sister fled, the town is better off without her and good riddance!”

The guard fumbled with the keys for a minute and then undid the door. Amelia ran into Phil’s arms and started sobbing. “Come on, let’s get you home.” He said as he sent Christopher a grateful look. Then he gathered his daughter and left.

Christopher glared at the citizens still crowded in the jail, “Show’s over.” He said.

They started to disperse. Sylphiel took a deep breath and started to head towards the door. “Sylphiel.” Luna said.

“Yes?” Sylphiel asked as her anxiety ricocheted. She’d been so appalled by Luna’s behavior earlier she hadn’t even given much thought to what could happen should she evoke Luna’s ire. But then, she had just lost her husband. What else could Luna do to her?

But Luna just smiled enigmatically, “Good luck picking up the pieces.”

* * *

“Father!” Sylphiel screamed as she woke up.

The room was pitch black. It looked to be the dead of night! Sylphiel felt so disoriented as she heard someone get up from the room next to hers. In seconds her door opened, “Sylphiel?” her father asked, holding a candle. She could see her mother behind him.

She got up and ran to them, throwing her arms around them, “I had the most horrible dream!”

“Shh.” Eruk said as he stroked her hair.

“It just felt so real.” She whispered, “Like it had really happened.”

She stopped suddenly feeling very foolish. Her husband leaving her was no reason to act like a child! “Sit down.” Her mother said as she guided her back to the bed. “I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

Sylphiel nodded as Eruk set the candle on the bedside table. “What happened?”

Sylphiel shook her head, “It sounds so crazy. But I dreamt that a mad man had come to the city and destroyed it. You and everyone else I knew except for a handful of people were killed. And…”

She stopped. Eruk put a hand on her knee. “What is it?”

Sylphiel shook her head. “Father, I’m worried I’m losing my mind! But I dreamt that Lina’s delusions were reality, that she was a powerful sorceress who was fighting the madman!”

Eruk pulled her into a sideways hug and patted her shoulder reassuringly, “You’re just trying to make sense of why he left you. If she was a powerful enchantress it would make sense.”

Sylphiel bit her lip nervously. Eruk was probably right. But the dream felt so real and was so detailed that it felt more like a memory than a dream! 

Her mother walked in and handed her a steaming cup of tea. Sylphiel gave her a small smile as she accepted it. She sat down beside her and wrapped her in a hug as Eruk said, “Look, Sylphiel, you’d better not tell anyone else about this dream. We don’t need any rumors going around that you’re going Lina’s way.”

Sylphiel nodded as Eruk continued, “It’s bad enough, the circumstances. People are probably already speculating about you, wondering what’s wrong.”

“Eruk!” her mother said in admonishment.

“It’s okay.” Sylphiel said as she worked to stifle the dull ache in her head, “I know he’s just saying what people are thinking.”

 _Not to mention what I’m thinking. What_ is _wrong with me!?_

“We have to work hard to repair our image after this.” Eruk continued.

Sylphiel nodded as she took a long sip of tea, “I will. I won’t talk about this again.” She took a deep breath, “Thanks for checking in on me. I think I’ll be okay now.”

Her parents smiled as they got up and wished her a good night. But after they left Sylphiel lay awake in bed, images from the dream playing through her mind and frightening in their familiarity.

* * *

Amelia lay listlessly in her bed. Though the sun was out, she could not gather the gumption to get up and get the day started. Humiliation over having been arrested and thrown in jail coursed through her. She simply could not get up and face people after what had happened. Everyone now knew she was a liar who had been sent to jail. It was unbearable!

Amelia pulled the pillow over her head as someone knocked at the door. She heard Phil walk down the hallway to answer it. “Zelgadis?” he asked, “Are you wanting to see Amelia?”

“Please.”

“Come in.” Phil said, “I’ll get her.”

Amelia closed her eyes. She was having a hard time even summoning the willpower to talk to him. What if he was mad at her for forcing him into such a position? But before she could think about it too much her father was at her door, “Zelgadis is here.” He said.

Amelia pulled the pillow off her face and sat up. She owed it him to face him. “Just a minute.”

She pulled a robe over her nightdress and slipped out of her room, keeping her eyes downcast, barely looking up when Zel asked, “Amelia?”

“I’m so sorry.” She said.

“Why?”

“If I hadn’t lied then Luna never would have…”

Zel reached out and grabbed her shoulders, “I wanted to help them. It’s not your fault.”

“I shouldn’t have put you in that position,” Amelia said as she broke down into sobs, “It must have been horrible for you!”

He brushed her hair from her face, “Stop doing this to yourself! Look, I don’t blame you, but I need to know you’ll be okay.”

Amelia scowled, “Why?”

“I have to leave, Amelia.” He said, “I can’t stay here anymore. People will poke around my cave to look at the freak.”

Amelia went stiff for a moment, “So you’re going to leave me, too.”

Zel squeezed her shoulders, “I’m sorry. But I can’t stay here.”

“If I had only…”

“I was planning to leave even before this happened!” Zel yelled, “As soon as Luna found my cave I knew I would have to leave.”

Amelia looked at the floor, “I don’t deserve to have anyone.”

Zel put his finger under her chin and tilted it so she would look at him, “You deserve so much more than me. And you will find that person.”

Amelia shut her eyes tightly and then ran back into her bedroom and slammed the door. Zel shook his head in frustration. This had not been how he’d expected their last meeting to go. But at least he’d gotten to say goodbye even if it hadn’t been well received. 

Zel was about to let himself out when Phil walked in, “You know, we really could use an extra hand here.” He said.

Zel sighed, “Under different circumstances.”

Phil nodded, “Take care then.”

* * *

Someone was pounding at the door. Amelia groaned and pulled the pillow over her ears and wondered when her father would answer it. While it was most likely a customer, Amelia could not completely drown the hope that it was her sister, finally returned after years away, or even Zelgadis having a change of heart. But deep inside she knew they would never return for her.

Whoever was at the door kept knocking, and her father did not answer. Amelia groaned in annoyance and got out of bed. She knew that she looked a mess with her face red and puffy and her hair disheveled, but she couldn’t bring herself to care too much as she walked down the hallway and opened the door.

“What?” Amelia asked as she saw Luna. 

“I need to see your father.” Luna said as she walked in without being invited.

Amelia looked at her warily, “What about?”

“That’s no concern of yours.”

Amelia debated between going back to her room or following Luna down the hallway. In the end, her anxiety was high enough to override the overwhelming depression she was feeling, so she followed Luna. “Phil!” Luna called as she reached his office and pushed open the door.

Amelia felt the world lurch as she saw her father collapsed over his desk. “Daddy!” she screamed as she ran to him and grabbed his hand. It was stone cold. He had been dead for hours.

* * *

Zelgadis bit back tears as he continued to walk forward. Leaving Amelia had been agonizing, but it was the right decision. While he had known some kindness from a few of the townspeople, even as he was being healed, crueler villagers had poked their heads around to stare at him. He would be a sideshow freak if he tried to make a life for himself there with Amelia. He could not live with that.

But it still hurt.

He moved off the trail to sit on a boulder and grabbed his canteen and drank deeply. That was when he noticed a group of men on horseback on the horizon. Zel stayed off trail to let them pass, and was a little alarmed when they stopped. His stomach curled as he recognized several of Luna’s men.

“Zelgadis Greywards?” one of them asked as he dismounted.

“Yes.” He asked tiredly. Out in the middle of nowhere he wouldn’t put it past them to beat him.

“You’re under arrest.” He said, “For the murder of Philionel the Scribe.”


	7. The Love I Feel for You

“LIGHTING!” Lina called. And an orb of light appeared between her hands. Lina smiled as she looked at it and then glanced at Gourry. “You see it, right?”

He nodded as he folded his arms across his chest and fought against the urge to cry. There she was, powerful and mentally competent again. Of course, she had always been powerful, hadn’t she? He remembered fighting mighty enemies. He remembered seeing Lina do the impossible and falling in love with her for so bravely taking on such malicious foes with a can do attitude. It was all so vivid and real! And it had all been stripped from her, somehow.

 _Unless this is the fake world._ The thought welled within him before he could suppress it. Had he lost his sanity? But then again, if that was the case, how could he have a shared delusion with Lina? He bit his tongue. He wanted this world to be the real one. In this world he was a hero who stood by the woman he loved. In the other world he was a coward who had abandoned his wife. While life was far from perfect in this world, but it was a damn site better. So he couldn’t exactly say he didn’t have a preference.

Making matters even more confusing was that he had two different sets of memories to shift through. Somehow in the fake world, if it was fake, he’d gained memories of growing up in the village. In there most of his family was alive. But here, most of them had died over the fight for the Sword of Light. But at least the memories came to him in some sort of logical sense now rather than a tangled jumble that was impossible to sort through.

Gourry decided it was time for some explanations, and he could tell from the look on Lina’s face that she was thinking the same thing. Casually she let go of the light spell and glanced at Xellos. “So, how much of this are you going to explain?”

“Quite a bit, actually.” He said, “For once it suits my purposes.”

Lina stared at him suspiciously. “Alright then. Just what was that world?”

Naga sat on a log as Xellos started to explain, “That world is a pocket universe created by a demon named Kitsune. She lures people there with promises of wealth and power and then traps them in a world designed to cause them great emotional pain. She feeds off the pain and agony the people who wander in feel until they give up and die.”

Gourry shuddered as Lina looked at Xellos as if evaluating the merits of what he was saying. “So you’re saying that world was designed to cause us pain? How?”

“Kitsune has the ability to implant memories and create intricate delusions in human minds.” Xellos said.

“Delusions?” Lina repeated,.

“Isn’t it obvious? In reality you are a powerful sorceress who people take very seriously if they know what is good for them. In there you were a nut case and ridiculed and completely dominated by your formidable sister.”

Lina bristled a little as Xellos continued, “And for a man like Gourry who values family so much, to be trapped in a loveless marriage was its own form of torture.”

Gourry felt sick. If that was the case, then Kitsune was a truly malicious being. It had been agonizing for him to think he was in a loveless marriage, and worse, while in love with someone who wasn’t his wife. But what must that have been like for Sylphiel? The guilt he felt for not being able to return her feelings pulsed as Lina folded her arms across her chest and looked disturbed.

“So what was real? And what wasn’t? I mean, we went in with Zel, Amelia and Sylphiel. And only Gourry and I came out, with Naga. But there were people there I knew…”

“That’s the tricky part. Some of the people you meet in that world are real. Others are delusions, based on people that those trapped in the world really know.”

“So my sister and parents aren’t in that world?” Lina clarified.

“Probably not.”

Lina nodded and relaxed a little. “But Zel, Amelia and Sylphiel are.”

“Indeed.”

Lina took a deep breath, “Any idea why Naga and I had memories of the real world and appeared crazy?”

“That, I believe, is a result of your high magical capacity.” Xellos said, “It would appear that Naga is almost as powerful as you.”

“Almost?” Naga said indignantly.

“Just let him talk.” Lina snapped.

“An elf or dragon would have been able to see the deception for what it was because of their high magical capacity. But most humans don’t have a capacity high enough to see it. However, it appears yours was high enough that the spell didn’t completely take hold of your mind and caused you to see both worlds, but not high enough for you to be able adequately see both worlds as they really were at the same time. As a result, you must have tried to combine both worlds you were seeing into one. It must have been very confusing for you.”

“Yeah.” Lina said as a haunted look passed over her face. Gourry fought down an impulse to hug her, and then wondered why he was fighting it. In this world he wasn’t married. Why had he never put in the effort to being more than a friend?

“Okay, Xellos. So, why did you get involved?”

Xellos smiled and Gourry shuddered. “We Mazoku often frequent the world for a little snack. Imagine my surprise to find you there! I did tell Kitsune that as long as you four were together she would never manage to break you, so I decided to muddy the waters a bit.”

Gourry felt cold as Lina glared at Xellos, “Break us?”

“That’s what Kitsune does! She gradually breaks her victims until they finally die, seeing that they’ve endured as much sorrow and agony as possible.”

Lina’s hands bunched into fists, “So you were enjoying our pain and trying to cause more?”

“Bingo!” Xellos said happily. “Only it appears that my decision had some unexpected consequences.”

“How’s that?” Lina asked.

“It forced you to fight Kitsune. Indirectly at least.” Xellos said, “You and Gourry made a decision to be happy. And once you made that decision her control over you started to slip.”

“Is that why I started remembering my past?” Gourry asked.

“Most likely.” Xellos said, “But while things got better for you and Gourry, things have turned, well, rather badly for Zel and Amelia.”

“What do you mean?” Lina asked, her voice low.

Xellos chuckled. “Well, let’s just say, Kitsune was able to create quite the villain based on your memories of your sister.”

Lina looked at him in horror for a minute. “So that’s why you’re cooperating for once. You know that if I know this there’s no way I’m going to leave them there.”

“Correct.” Xellos said, and Gourry was seized with the desire to punch the smug smile off his face.

“So you’re looking forward to feeding off of us again.”

“It is always a pleasure.”

Lina punched a nearby tree as Naga said, “No way I’m ever going back in there! It felt so horrible!”

“Amelia is a princess of Seyruun.” Lina said, “There’ll be a huge reward for saving her.”

Naga stood up, “You mean _that_ Amelia is in there?”

“Whaddaya mean _'that_ Amelia?'” Lina shrieked. “Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun, what other Amelia is there!?”

“What are you doing, taking my sister to a place like that?”

“Your sister?” Lina asked, “Since when was Amelia your sister?”

“Since she was born!” Naga said.

“Wait, that means you’re…” Lina shook her head.

“Hey Lina,” Gourry said, “So if Amelia is a Seyruun princess, and Naga is her sister, then that would also mean that she is a Seyruun princess!” 

“Well it’s not something I like to flaunt.” Naga said.

“Oh, is that why you wear that?” Gourry asked.

Naga laughed, Gourry cringed. Lina pulled her hair out.

“Well, best of luck to you!” Xellos said.

“Hey, wait!” Lina yelled, but it was too late. He had already disappeared. “Figures.”

Gourry walked up beside her. “What now, Lina?”

Lina took a deep breath. “We eat. Then we plan.”

* * *

For the first time in days, Gourry felt full. He relished the feeling as he leaned back in his chair while Lina got out a map. The longer he was in this world, the more right things felt, and gradually his worries about having left his sanity behind started to abate. It made sense that he could walk for a solid day without feeling sore as he was accustomed to it. And the small meals he was eating in the other world did little to quench his appetite. And things just felt more natural in this world. It just felt right. And he had learned years ago to trust his intuition.

Now it looked as though his biggest worry was the fact that they would have to return to the other world.

Lina frowned as she scrutinized the map. “The last I can remember, we were in Georgpat. But now we’re several days away in Fleeman.” She got out a quill and drew a line between the towns, “Let’s assume that this area is under Kitsune’s domain. Let’s also assume that if we came back the way we came out in Fleeman, then we would have to travel for several days in that world just to find the others.”

“All while being as crazy as a rabid dog.” Naga added with a shudder.

“Exactly.” Lina said grimly, and Gourry felt his sympathy surge for them. While he wasn’t too happy with himself in that world, at least he’d been in possession of his mental facilities. The few times he wasn’t it was terrible! He couldn’t imagine constantly having to live like that. “So our best bet is to travel back to Georgpat. Hopefully if we enter her world through there, we’ll wind up close to the others.”

Gourry nodded in agreement even as something else troubled him, “Hey Lina,” he said, “If this Kit person can rewrite our memories, what’s to stop her from making us forget what happened when we escaped her world? Or rewriting our memories again?”

Lina bit her lip. “What’s scary is that that is a good point.” Lina stared out the window as Naga took a sip of ale. “If we go back there only to forget everything that happened since escaping, then there’s no way that we could save the others. But we still can’t just leave them there.”

“Well, maybe since we know what’s going to happen, that will give us some sort of advantage?” Gourry offered half-heartedly. It seemed like a huge risk to take. 

Naga chugged the ale, “This is crazy! By going back we just risk losing all six of us. Three of us getting out is better than none of us getting out.”

Lina turned red and slammed her fists on the table, “Dammit! Why didn’t I insist on Zel and Amelia coming with us?”

“It was risky enough just asking me.” Gourry said, “Zel might have, but Amelia never would have left her father.”

“Daddy’s in there?” Naga asked with a hiccup.

Lina bit her lip, “We didn’t go in with Phil, so I don’t think it’s the real Phil.” Lina exhaled, “But that leads to another problem. Even assuming the best case scenario happens and we somehow retain our memories of this, how are we going to convince Sylphiel to leave?”

Gourry felt that sense of guilt wash through him again. He thought briefly about telling Sylphiel that he wanted to start fresh with her somewhere else. But the lie would just seem too cruel once they got back to this world where her parents and hometown were dead and destroyed.

“This is crazy.” Naga mumbled, “It’s suicide going back there.”

“So we’re just supposed to write the others off?” Lina shot back. “I’d hate to have to explain to Phil why we didn’t do everything we could to save Amelia.”

Naga scoffed and walked away to the bar as Lina folded her arms across her chest. “What about you?” she asked.

“Huh?” Gourry said.

“Do you think we should just thank our lucky stars we got out and leave them behind?”

“No.” he said as he resisted the urge to grab her hand. Then he wondered why he was resisting. Strangely, in Kitsune’s world where they had more barriers to romance they had been more affectionate with each other. The fears that Kitsune’s world was the real one asserted itself again. Why hadn’t he pursued Lina before? All of his excuses about being scared to sending her packing just seemed so hollow after experiencing a world where they had real barriers to a romance. 

He took her hand. She looked at him, surprised as he did everything he could to project a confidence he was having a hard time feeling. “I’m not looking forward to it, but we just can’t leave them there. Besides, I know you. You’ll find a way to pull this off.”

Lina looked like she was about to ask him something, but instead she nodded, “Yeah, being mentally prepared has to count for something. I guess this means we’d better find Zel first, he’d be the easiest to convince. And if need be, we can just knock Sylphiel out and drag her back here.”

She smiled as a look of relief washed over her face as she put her hand over his. “And it will take us a few days to get back to Georgpat. I’m sure we’ll think of something between now and then. In the meantime, I’m going to take a bath and think on it a little.”

“Okay. I’ll be in my room if you need anything.”

* * *

Gourry polished his sword, lost in thought. An hour ago he had been so convinced that this was the real world. But as he left the dining hall to go to his room, he started to doubt again. When they had booked rooms at the inn, only two were available, and Lina had seemed to indicate she would bunk up with Naga. Once again, their inability to be romantically intimate with each other was puzzling. Especially after sharing a bedroll and a hotel room since fleeing the village.

He set the sword down and stared out the window. If the other world really was fake, then why had he and Lina never progressed romantically here? Neither of them were married. Lina had ways of protecting herself from pregnancy. They certainly loved each other. But yet they never moved forward.

The excuses that rose in his mind rung hollow. She was younger than him. She wasn’t ready yet. He didn’t want to push her. He was scared of a good working relationship turning sour should romance be added to the mix. None of it made any sense! 

So did that mean that the other world was real? And he was married? That would certainly explain why he never pursued Lina romantically.

Yet as soon as he made the decision to leave Sylphiel had had no qualms at becoming cuddly with Lina, even if he did stop it at a certain point. If he could do it there, why couldn’t he here?

Someone knocked at the door. “Come in.” he said.

Lina walked in, obviously having just gotten out of the bath. Her hair was still damp and the smell of lavender bath oil tickled his nose. She also wore a pink bathrobe, her stuff gathered in a bag by her side. Quietly she closed the door behind her, and from the expression on her face he could tell something was troubling her. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked as he sat on a chair.

She sat on the bed facing him, gripping the edge of the mattress as she did. “Hey, um, I was wondering…”

She suddenly turned bright red as the words seemed to choke in her throat. He became slightly alarmed. He’d rarely seen her like this! “What is it?” he asked, trying to sound gentle.

She took a deep breath, “I know it’s not really any of my business. I mean, but I just…I was wondering…I…” Her fists tightened even more fully around the mattress as she finally spit it out, “Did you sleep with Sylphiel?”

Gourry’s eyes widened. She looked both embarrassed and vulnerable as she stared at his feet. Lightly, he grabbed her hands, “No.”

He didn’t explain that he had memories of being with Sylphiel before he’d met her in that other world. But he was fairly certain that, if the other world was fake, then those were fake as well. Lina relaxed a little. “I just, I mean, you were married to her, but you just left with me, and she’s so…so perfect, and I was just a raving...”

“Hush,” Gourry whispered, and suddenly it was crystal clear to him that this was the real world and the other the fake one. He squeezed her hands reassuringly. “Look, that Kistune may have re-written our memories and pulled one over on us. But she couldn’t take away what you mean to me, and what I feel for you.”

Lina turned her gaze to him as he reached a hand out to caress her cheek. “Because the love I feel for you is so strong that even seeing you just as some raving lunatic couldn’t destroy it!”

Lina smiled a little, “Love?” she asked playfully.

He stroked her hair, “Yeah. I mean, isn’t that why you came to me for help and not the others?”

Lina nodded and then laughed a little, “Yeah, I guess not even thinking you were married could stop me.”

“Well, you are Lina Inverse, and you get what you want.” He smiled and reached forward to gather her in his arms as he pulled her to him. “Come here.” He growled as he kissed her.


	8. Dazed

Sylphiel felt dazed as she walked through the house and prepared to leave to run her errands, the strange nightmares she’d had during the night clinging to her persistently. The fact that they seemed less like dreams and more like memories of a different life made them difficult to shake. Worse, there was no one that Sylphiel could talk to about them. Her parents were already worried enough about her. And considering that Sylphiel had crafted the narrative that Lina was a witch to save face about losing her husband, she couldn’t very well confide these dreams to anyone. They would say she was under Lina’s spell, or worse, a witch herself!

She took a deep breath and put on her kerchief. Running errands and interacting with people was low on her list of things she wanted to do. She didn’t want to talk to people about Gourry or Lina. She still wanted to hide from the world until the time that some other bit of gossip displaced her fractured love life. She longed for the day when this would be old news and people would find something else to talk about. But till then, there was work to be done. And little would be accomplished by sitting at home and being miserable. 

Sylphiel stepped out of the house and onto the sidewalk and forced herself to look the first person she ran into on the street in the eye. She wondered if it was just her imagination when that gave her a disapproving look. Sylphiel told herself that she was imagining things and continued to walk on. But then two middle aged women who were deep in conversation stopped when they saw her and one definitely gave her a disapproving glare. Sylphiel felt her stomach clench. Something deep inside told her that Luna had somehow exacted her revenge.

“Good morning Sylphiel.”

Sylphiel nearly jumped a mile. She hadn’t even noticed Alfred come up behind her! “Good morning, Alfred.” She said evenly.

“You know.” He said, “Give it a few months and it will all boil down. I’m sure it wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows if you married me.”

“What are you talking about?” Sylphiel asked as she widened the distance between them, feeling more than a little creeped out.

Alfred grinned, “That night in the stables.”

Sylphiel turned red.

“I always suspected he knew about us.” Alfred said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“What ‘us?’” Sylphiel snapped, causing several people to turn their heads and look at them, “I told you then that there was no ‘us!’”

Alfred grinned and reached out a hand to caress her cheek. She took a step back, “You led me on. You were so nice to me.”

“Yes, I’m very polite. That doesn’t mean...”

“But especially to me.” Alfred said. “You could never completely give your heart to Gourry because you were in love with me. It’s why he left.”

“That’s not true!” Sylphiel said.

“I liked you a lot more when you were kissing me.”

“What? I never…” Sylphiel said as she looked around to see that everyone was watching them.

“There’s no use denying it.”

“I’m not going to listen to this any longer.” Sylphiel said as she randomly walked into the first shop she came to and shut the door behind him.

But the shopkeeper was looking at her disapprovingly from behind the counter. “We don’t do business with adulteresses.”

Sylphiel felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. “I’m not…”

The shopkeeper glared at her, “I always thought you were too squeaky clean. Just goes to show, the people who put the best face forward are truly rotten to the core.”

Sylphiel felt panicky and briefly debated which was worse, staying there and being accused of adultery by the shopkeeper or going back outside and seeing Alfred again. She decided to risk going outside, and she cringed as she stepped out and saw a blockade of disapproving townspeople staring at her in disgust. “The priest’s daughter no less!” One of them said.

Sylphiel struggled to keep from breaking down as she ran to her parents’ house, enduring accusations of adultery the whole time. She felt as though she had stepped into a nightmare. Why did everyone believe Alfred? He’d never exactly endeared himself to the townspeople. But here they were, gobbling up his story as they shouted accusations at her.

She reached her parents’ house and opened the door and saw her parents standing in the kitchen, looking disapproving. Sylphiel’s stomach sank as she closed the door. “Please tell me you don’t believe...”

“Haven’t we always warned you that your behavior must be beyond reproach?” Eruk asked.

Sylphiel felt something snap within her, “I never encouraged him! He came on to me, yes, but I told him it would never happen!”

“But where did he get the idea from that he even had a shot with you?” Eruk asked harshly.

Sylphiel met his gaze. “Where does he get the idea from that he has a shot with anyone?”

“I have told you over and over again.” Eruk said as he slammed his hand into his fist, “But you never listened. Always as a girl running through the creek when you should have been sewing and weaving. He must have sensed your wild spirit! He’s telling everyone that you kissed him!”

“I never…” Sylphiel started.

“But how can we believe that?” her mother asked sharply, “When you never told your husband so he could defend your honor? Surely if it had been harmless, and you had been innocent, you would have said something!”

Sylphiel looked down, “I could barely talk to Gourry about breakfast. How could I have told him another man came on to me?”

“No wonder he left you for a nutcase.” Eruk said, “He must have sensed your wildness. He must have known you would be unfaithful.”

“I was a good wife!” Sylphiel flared.

“Yes, keep telling yourself that.” Her mother said, “It’s everyone’s fault but yours.”

Sylphiel’s world felt surreal as she wondered how she had so quickly fallen from sympathetic jilted wife to fallen woman. She clutched at the wall for support. How could her own parents not stand by her in this? Pain seared her mind and drove out any rational thought from it as her parents continued to lecture her sternly.

Then someone knocked on the door. Sylphiel’s heart was thudding in her chest as she stared at it, fearing who it could be. Her mother walked past her to open it, and Sylphiel’s stomach seemed to dissolve as she saw Luna standing there, looking triumphant. “I have a warrant for her arrest.” Luna said, “For adultery.”

“It was you who set this up!” Sylphiel screeched as her hands balled into fists. “You concocted this whole thing to avoid facing the reality that your sister is a witch!”

“Still spewing that nonsense?” Luna asked, “You’re sounding more and more desperate. Which is more believable? That my idiot sister is a witch, or that the poor girl was crazy and you drove your husband away because you were in love with another man?”

Sylphiel heard her parents gasp as she stared at Luna with pure hatred. The realization that she had three choices sunk in fast. She could charge at Luna and end up with an assault charge on top of the charge of adultery. She could let them arrest her. Or she could try to flee out the back door. And go where?

Sylphiel’s hands balled into fists. Running seemed like her best option. She sprinted to the back door and wrenched it open, only to cry in despair as she saw a crowd gathered outside waiting for her. As Luna came up behind her with the shackles she said triumphantly, “Only the guilty run.”

* * *

Zel looked up when he heard the door open, hoping against hope that it was Amelia. Instead his stomach sank as he saw Sylphiel led into the jail in chains. Considering how he had heard nothing but praise for Gourry’s sainted wife, he instantly wondered what trap Luna had sprung for her in retaliation for helping him.

Sylphiel was put in the cell beside his. He could no longer see her. Luna walked by his cell and said, “The trial is tomorrow. I expect you’ll hang shortly thereafter.”

“You’ll kill an innocent man because your sister ran off with the blacksmith?” Zel asked. “I’m not the one who should hang!”

“Amelia hates you now.” Luna said, “Killing her father was the wrong way to her heart.”

Zel felt his temper flare, “Let me see her and hear it from her own mouth!”

“It’s not me who is preventing her.” Luna said, “She refuses to see you. When she found you’d murdered her father it woke her to your true nature. Who else do you think sent the guards after you?”

“The person who actually killed Phil.” Zel said.

“And how would you know who’d done it, if it wasn’t you?” Luna asked. “Unless it was Amelia, and she’s trying to pin this on you.”

“Amelia loved her father, she would never…”

“For someone who claims that Phil was alive when you left, you sure seem to know a lot about who killed him.”

“Remember,” Sylphiel said hurriedly from the other side of the wall, “Anything you say can be used against you.”

“Shut up!” Luna snapped as she turned to look at her, “Or were you involved in Phil’s murder?”

“No.” Sylphiel said firmly.

“Perhaps I should interrogate you about the matter.” Luna said.

Sylphiel was quiet. Zel decided it would be best to join her in the silence. Luna looked at him distastefully, “Tomorrow you’ll hang.”

She finally left. Zel buried his face in his hands as he tried to fight against the despair he was feeling. He desperately wanted to believe that Amelia hadn’t abandoned him. But what if she had? What if she really believed he had killed Phil?

“Have you seen Amelia?” Zel asked quietly.

“No, I’ve been sleeping a lot. I didn’t even know Mr. Seyruun had been murdered.”

“How did it come to this?” Zel asked, “God, Sylphiel, I’m sorry. If you hadn’t have helped me, you never would have been targeted.”

“You can’t just stand by when you see someone being mistreated.” She responded quietly, “I just didn’t think she was so powerful. I still don’t understand why everyone, why my parents even, would believe Alfred over me!”

Zel was quiet for a moment, then he whispered, “Perhaps Luna is the real witch.” 

He could hear Sylphiel as she cried softly. He searched for something comforting to say, but came up empty. The situation was dire, and nothing he could say would change that. He leaned his head back against the wall, and tried to keep the despair from completely overwhelming him.

* * *

Amelia stopped at the entrance to the courtroom. The only people there was Luna, the judge, and the five men of the jury. Her hands started to shake as she walked into the courtroom. “Where’s Zel?” she asked.

“Shh.” Luna said as she put a hand on her arm. Amelia wretched it away, “We thought being in the same room with him would be too traumatizing.”

“What?” Amelia asked as what Luna said slowly filtered through the fog in her mind. 

“Here’s the stand.” Luna said as she pointed. 

Feeling rather disoriented, Amelia sat on the chair. She took a deep breath and tried not to feel sick. Ever since she’d found her father dead she had been sleeping. The grief was just too overwhelming for her to do anything more. And now, as she sat in the witness stand, she felt so groggy and discombobulated that she wasn’t quite sure which way was up. 

“State your name for the record.” Luna said.

“Amelia Seyruun.” She said. Or was that right? The feeling that her name was a lot longer rose from somewhere.

“And how do you know Zelgadis Greywards?”

“He’s a friend.” Amelia replied.

“And were you there the day that Zelgadis Greywards killed your father?” Luna asked.

“Yes,” Amelia said, and then she realized the implications of what she’d said, “I was there I mean. But Zel didn’t kill my father.”

“Then who did?” Luna asked.

“I don’t know.” Amelia said. “I was asleep when it happened.”

“So Mr. Greywards killed your father while you slept and you didn’t witness it.” Luna said.

“No!” Amelia said, “Zel had already left.”

“Who else was at the house that day?”

Amelia’s mind was fuzzy, “I don’t know. I don’t really remember.”

“Hm. Let’s see if I can jog it for you.” Luna said as she pulled out Amelia’s diary.

“What are you doing with that?” Amelia screeched.

“Then you recognize this.” Luna said.

“It’s my diary!” Amelia said, and then she stopped, and with a sinking feeling realized she had fallen into a trap.

“Let the jury note that the witness has identified this as her diary.”

“Can I look at it?” Amelia asked.

“I’ll read it for you.” Luna said as she cleared her throat, “Zel was mad today when I refused to flee with him. He knows I’ll never leave my Daddy. I’ve never seen someone so mad before! I was scared he would hit me!”

“I never wrote that!” Amelia protested.

“But this is your diary.” Luna said. “And, you did say earlier that your memory is very bad.”

Amelia felt sick as the room started to spin as Luna continued, “How can you say for sure whether you wrote this or not when you can’t even say for sure how many people were at your father’s house the day he died?”

“That’s not fair…” Amelia said.

“Your memory is not reliable. So we have to use your diary. And here, you wrote, ‘Zel threatened to kill Daddy today. It won’t work. I won’t go with him, no matter what he does.’”

“Lies!” Amelia said.

“Now darling, you’re in shock and confused. But your diary is really clear about what happened.” Luna said.

Amelia felt tears of rage boil out of her as Luna said, “No further questions. You’re dismissed.”

“I want to stay for the verdict!” Amelia said.

“Someone, take her home. She’s too distressed to stay.” Luna said.

* * *

Zel felt resigned to the inevitable as he was taken to the courthouse. Sylphiel had bought him some time and nothing more. Now Sylphiel would pay the consequences for her heroism, and he knew full well there would be nothing to stop Luna from killing him this time. He was certain they would find him guilty and that they would kill him for a crime he did not commit. One just had to look at him to deduce that he was a horrible person.

His feet felt like heavy bricks of clay, but somehow he pushed forward. He wondered if he would see Amelia again. He looked around as they entered the courtroom, but it was only Luna, the judge, and the jury. 

The guards stopped as they reached the judge, who looked at him disapprovingly. “State your name.”

“Zelgadis Greywards.” He said.

“We are here to inform you that we have found you guilty of the murder of Philionel Seyruun.”

Zel felt a rush of indignation run through him that he had been tried and convicted without even getting to witness it. “But what evidence do you have against me?”

“This diary.” The judge said.

“What?” Zel said as it was handed to him. He opened it and saw Amelia’s handwriting. “This is a fake…it has to be.”

“She identified the diary as hers.” The judge said, “And it’s her handwriting.”

Zel felt a strange sense of anxiety grip him. Was it true? Or was it a trick? Was he a fool to think that someone as beautiful as Amelia really could love someone like him? To think that if anything bad happened she wouldn’t blame him? 

But then this wasn’t like Amelia. Amelia believed in his goodness more than he did! Or so he thought. He couldn’t overlook the fact that Amelia was nowhere to be seen.

If she really thought him innocent, wouldn’t she have done everything in her power to support him? That she wasn’t there was damning.

It took Zel a moment to realize that the judge was speaking, “Your sentence shall be death by hanging.”

* * *

Amelia felt as though she was in a haze as she walked through the town, supported by Christopher. All around people were talking, their voices an aggravating hum in the back of her mind. At first she tried to tune it out, figuring it was probably more slander about Zel. But then she heard Sylphiel’s name. She roused a bit, wondering why they would be talking about her.

“Well it’s no wonder the blacksmith ran off then!”

“And here she was telling us some long tale about that lunatic being a witch!”

“When she was sleeping with Alfred the whole time!”

Alfred? Amelia felt her stomach twist as she thought of her manipulative cousin who was also quite the compulsive liar. She could easily see Luna talking to him and asking him to slander Sylphiel. 

“She’s in jail now, and all the better for it!”

“She should be stoned.”

“Or burned.”

Amelia shuddered. Sylphiel was in jail? The idea was ludicrous! Sylphiel was the most law abiding person Amelia had ever met! And this talk of her having an affair with Alfred was so ludicrous it should have been obvious to all! 

“Mr. Mayor!” someone called, and Amelia recognized one of the pages as he caught up to them, “Your wife asked me to inform you that Mr. Greywards has been convicted and will hang first thing in the morning.”

Amelia felt the bottom of her stomach drop. Zel was sentenced to death?

“Thank you. What a relief!” Christopher said as he continued to steer Amelia home.

Amelia felt tears trail down her face as Christopher patted her arm, “You don’t need to worry my dear. Tomorrow he will be dead and your father avenged.”

Amelia bit her lip. She wanted to scream that Zel had not done this, but if things had become so crazy that the townspeople seriously believed that Sylphiel had had an affair with Alfred, then nothing she could say would convince them that Zel was innocent. Somehow, while she was lying miserable and depressed in her bed, the town had completely lost its hold on reality. Amelia didn’t understand it, but fighting it seemed impossible.

But what could she do? Especially with no one left to fight for her.

Her sister was gone. So was Lina. Her father was dead now. All she had left was Zelgadis, and he was slated to die in the morning. And what had she done to stop it? Walk into Luna’s trap. Provide the testimony to convict him. Sleep incessantly so she didn’t have to think about how miserable she was.

The knowledge that this was happening because she was letting it happen awoke within her. And then suddenly Amelia seemed the fog in her mind receded as what she needed to do became clear. She would not let them take Zelgadis from her. She would fight for him! The town had lost its hold on reality, so it was time to find somewhere new. There was nothing left for her hear now. But somewhere else there had to be a chance of happiness. 

And she would rescue Zelgadis and find that happy place with him. Amelia took a steadying breath as her thoughts raced and a plan took shape.


	9. Traveling to Hell

Despite Naga’s proclamation that returning to Kitsune’s world was suicide, she was still with them the next day. Gourry wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or concerned, but eventually decided that since Lina did not protest the situation, then Naga could be an asset at best, or at least she wouldn’t make the situation worse. But there was little about the woman that inspired confidence.

He felt his anxiety prick, and took a deep breath. Sure, they’d been in tight spots before, but that was with their memories and abilities intact. Going back to Kitsune’s world felt like going against Xellos blindfolded. It seemed so foolhardy and reckless that it was hard to keep the gloomier thoughts at bay.

Lina’s hand brushed against his, and he grabbed it, relishing how she did not pull away. He smiled a bit as he watched her, deep in contemplation. Somehow she would get them through this. He had never been wrong to put his faith in her before. And worrying was just detracting himself from thinking about how right the world felt. He was with Lina, and it was right. He squeezed her hand, determined to cling to these memories no matter what!

Unfortunately, clinging to memories wasn’t exactly his strong suit…

Gourry heard the sound of footfalls down the path and realized that a traveler was approaching them from the other direction. From his gait Gourry guessed he was older and that he was pushing a cart. Likely a merchant and not any threat. Soon enough an old man appeared over the crest of the hill. Something in Lina’s demeanor changed as he approached.

“Morning!” he said.

“It’s nearly afternoon.” Lina said, but her tone was friendly.

The man looked up at the sky, “I guess you’re right there.”

“Do you live around here?” Lina asked.

“Why are you asking?”

“I was just wondering if you’d heard anything fishy about the land to the west of us.” Lina said. Gourry smiled a little. She had been quizzing the innkeeper at breakfast, but all he would say was that no one with any brains went west. And the other patrons at the inn had been travelers and knew nothing.

“You mean the Spiren’s Forest?” he asked as he took off his hat to scratch at his bald head. “I know it’s nothing you want to mess with.”

“Unfortunately, we have. We only escaped yesterday.”

The man laughed as his blue eyes filled with mirth, “Now you’re pulling my leg! No one who goes there has ever come back!”

“There’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?” Lina asked, “Look, we have friends still trapped in there. And we need to know everything we can to get them out.”

“Not sure how anything I tell you would be helpful, seeing as I’ve never been.”

“Why don’t we pull to the side of the road and have lunch?” Lina offered. “We picked up some fresh sweet rolls before we left town this morning. We’ll share them with you!”

“You’ll share your portion.” Naga said as she examined her nails.

The man looked at the sky, “I guess it’s about that time. I’m Russ by the way.”

“Lina.” She said as she smiled brightly. Gourry kept his eyes and ears open as they settled by a tree just off the side of the road and got out their lunches. “So, tell me what you know about the Spiren’s Forest.”

Russ took a swill from his canteen, and then he started to narrate his tale, using dramatic gestures to illustrate it. “Well, ever since I can remember, my mother would say to be a good boy, else Kitsune would come and drag me to her woods. Mind, she never told me what went on in those woods, other than horrors beyond imagining. I remember one time when I was a bit too rough with my sister I thought I saw her, coming from the west to get me!”

“Really?” Lina asked.

Russ nodded, “I’d never seen her before in my life. From a distance she looked like an ordinary woman, with ginger hair and green eyes. But as she got closer, it became apparent that she was a monster! She had three eyes for one thing. And mouths on her hands!”

“How did you get away?” Lina asked.

“I didn’t!” Russ said as he smiled mischievously, and for a moment Gourry feared that Russ would inform them that they were back in Kitsune’s world, “It was a prank my sister and her friend whose parents ran the local theater pulled. They have one helluva costume department, and were more than game to dress up as Kitsune to scare a naughty little boy.”

“But is that what Kistune looks like?” Lina asked.

“So they say. Hard to know for sure. But I do know that as I grew older and got restless and started exploring the area outside my hometown, I got real curious about the forest. I started testing the boundaries of the safe land. Gave my mama such a fright!”

Russ stopped to grab a sweet roll before continuing. “The first time I went I saw a beautiful young woman walking at the edge of the forest. Being young and having never had a girl, oh, I was so tempted! She promised me wonders if I would go to the woods with her. But I held firm! I never saw her again, but the next time I went I found a pile of gold and riches. It was so hard to leave it there.”

“Smart move.” Lina said bitterly. They had been duped and lured. How could they have been so stupid?

“Then, one time near dusk, I walked there and swore I heard a wee babe screaming from the forest. I didn’t dare go there, it was likely another ruse. But then I heard a horrible, monstrous sound, like a creature getting ready to feed. I turned around to run, and the shrieking grew worse! And then I heard a woman, begging, ‘Help us! Please help us!’

“But I ran! To this day I hope it was just one of Kitsune’s tricks, but I’ve never gone back. I give that place a wide berth.”

Russ wiped his fingers on his pants and looked at Lina, “So, what was it like in there?”

“Hell.” Lina said, “Kitsune creates a living nightmare to break you. And since she can read your mind, she knows how to hit below the belt. What else can you tell me about Kistune?”

“She likes foxes for one thing.” Russ said.

“Foxes?” Lina repeated thoughtfully.

“She has some special affinity with them.” Russ explained. “Around here you know, if you see a fox, you’d better run, because Kitsune is close behind.”

Gourry thought back to that world and tried to remember if he ever saw a fox, but gave it up. He couldn’t remember. But Lina’s brows knit as though Russ had just told them something helpful and she was working out a plan. “Anything else you can think of?”

“I think I’ve told you all I’ve got.” Russ said as he started packing up his things.

“And we’re anxious to get back to our friends.”

Russ shook his head in disbelief, “Best of luck there. I still say you’re crazy for attempting it.”

“Now that we know what happens there, we just can’t turn our backs on them.” Lina said.

“I guess so. Well, best of luck!”

The group said goodbye, and parted. Naga looked at Lina as soon as Russ was out of earshot, “Well I hope you found something useful in all that.”

“I did.” Lina said, “Gourry, how quickly do you think you can track down and trap a fox?”

“Huh?” Gourry said, “A few hours I guess.”

Lina bit her lip, “I hope the gang can hang on for that long. But with a little luck, it will take us to her.”

"To her?" Gourry asked.

Lina nodded, “When you think of it, it’s going to be very hard to convince Amelia and Sylphiel to leave. Further, we don’t have any idea how many other people are trapped in there, and something about going in and just saving our friends doesn’t sit well with me.”

“Since when did you care about other’s people’s bad luck?” Naga asked.

But Gourry patted her head as he smiled, “I keep telling people that you really are a good person.”

Lina smiled a little, “And it’s like Russ said. She’s going to keep hunting and trapping people in her world. We can’t let her get away with it. So we have to take the fight to her. And since we don’t know where she is and at best have a rumor about how she looks, we have to find some reliable way to track her down.”

“So I guess I’ll get started on tracking down a fox.” Gourry said.

“Lina…” Naga said.

“I’ve also been thinking of casting my boost spell before we go in.” Lina said, “That way my magic capacity would increase, and perhaps it’ll help me sort out the two worlds better, perhaps even get me access to my magic. I still don’t understand why I can’t cast spells there.”

“I don’t think we’re casting them correctly.” Naga said, “Too much interference.”

“Hm, I guess.” Lina said. “Unfortunately I don’t have any way to boost your magic, or increase Gourry’s chances of just retaining his memories. May be it would be better if I went in on my own, that way I wouldn’t have to worry about fighting either of you, or…”

“We go in together.” Gourry said. “Somehow, it’ll work out.”

Lina smiled a bit in relief as he wrapped his arm around her and they continued walking.

* * *

It was night when they got to the entrance to Kitsune’s world. The group stared at the forest, which appeared cold, distant and foreboding. There was none of the promise of powerful spells that had once been used to lure them there. The fox they had captured pulled on the leash incessantly. 

“I guess he senses his mistress nearby.” Naga said.

Lina nodded, and then she started chanting, “Lord of darkness of the four worlds, I call upon you, grant me all the power that you possess.”

“How long will you be able to maintain the boost?” Naga asked.

“I have no idea.” Lina said, “I’ve never tried something like this before.”

Naga exhaled nervously. “I guess we’d better get going then.”

Lina nodded, and walked to the cave. Gourry followed her nervously. Once he had pledged to follow her to the ends of the earth. Now he was willing traveling to hell with her. He focused on who he was, focused on retaining that as they entered the cave. “I am Gourry Gabriev, and I am a swordsman.” He told himself over and over again as he walked deeper and deeper into the cave.

It didn’t take long to arrive at the outskirts of the village by the jail. Gourry exhaled as the weight of the identity that had been forged in this place started to crash onto him. The false memories grew stronger. But they couldn’t drown out who he really was. It was as though his previous time here strengthened his mind to fight back against Kitsune. He looked at Lina, who was smiling a bit in relief.

“It is much easier to see the two worlds with this boost spell.” She said. Then she looked at them, “Please tell me you know what’s happening.”

Gourry patted her hand. “We’re taking Kitsune down.”

“Naga?” Lina asked.

“This should be a piece of cake now!” the other woman reported confidently as she laughed.

Lina smiled as the fox continued to pull at the leash. “Let’s get going then.”


	10. Trust Me

Amelia did her best to walk as casually as possible, resisting the strong impulse within her to run. She didn’t want to attract any attention to herself and she was worried that Luna had put men on her to follow her. But if she had, Amelia could sense no sign nor hair of them so, after a lot of buckling up to return to her house for the first time since her father’s murder for some clothes, food, money and supplies, she walked as quickly as she dared to the jail. It was late, at a time of the night when Amelia was usually in bed. But she needed to spring Zelgadis and Sylphiel now, and then get as far away as possible.

Amelia reached the outskirts of town, and her stomach twisted as she noticed three people by the jail. Guards? How was she going to get around them? Amelia nearly turned back around, but she knew if she did it would be forever too late. So Amelia kept walking. As she got closer she started to doubt they were guards. One of them was struggling with an animal on a leash. She couldn’t see their features in the dark, but as she grew closer, she realized that something about the way that two of them stood beside each other was familiar. There was the huge height differential for one thing. One was obviously a tall man while the other a petite woman. But then there was also the way that they moved together, back to back, guarding each other, that made Amelia’s heart race. But it couldn’t be them!

As Amelia got closer the clouds parted, allowing the light to fall on the woman. Amelia gasped. “Lina!” she cried as she ran to her, “Gourry! You came back!”

Amelia embraced her tightly as the third person said, “Gee, you hug Lina before you hug your own sister?”

Amelia felt her heart jump again, “Sis?” she said as she turned to look at Naga, “What, but, you’ve been gone for years!”

“And now I’m back.”

“Lina,” Gourry said, “This fox is really wanting to get a move on.”

Amelia turned to gape at him. “But why are you walking a fox?”

“Long story.” Lina said, and Amelia was relieved to see she seemed clear headed for once. “Anyway. We’ve got some important stuff to do. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“Wait, you can’t leave me here!” Amelia said.

“We won’t.” Lina said reassuringly, “We can’t explain right now, but you’re just going to have to trust that we’ll help.”

“But Zel and Sylphiel are in jail, and Zel is going to be hanged tomorrow, and the way they’re talking they’re going to stone Sylphiel for adultery.”

“What?” Lina and Gourry exclaimed.

“That’s why you came back, isn’t it?” Amelia said, “You heard how out of control Luna became?”

“No.” Lina said uncertainly.

Amelia’s hands balled into fists, “But now that you’re back you are going to help! We wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t run off and set your sister off…”

Lina put her hands on Amelia’s shoulders, “I promise you, we will help. We just need to figure out the best way to do this.”

Lina looked over at Naga, “I don’t want to cast a spell and lose my boost. Do you think you could…?”

“Spell?” Amelia said.

Naga looked dubious, “I’ll give it a shot.”

Amelia buried her hands in her face, “I thought you seemed lucid!” She turned to Gourry imploringly, “Please do something! I know you never loved Sylphiel, but she never did anything to deserve this!”

“Trust Lina.” Gourry said quietly, which only infuriated Amelia even more.

But before she could say anything, Naga cried, “Dam Brass!”

There was an explosion, and when the dust cleared, the group could see that there was a definite hole in the wall. From within they could see a lone guard looking out at them in shock. “S-she really is a witch!” he cried as he looked at Lina, and then he ran towards the town, “A witch! The witch has returned!”

Amelia pointed at the ruins of the wall, her hand trembling as Zelgadis and Sylphiel came to the bars of their cells and looked at them, stunned. “H-how…how did you do that?” Amelia asked.

“There’s no time to explain.” Lina said as she found a key hanging on a wall and grabbed it. “Let’s just say, I’m not crazy.”

Lina walked to Zel’s cell and put the key in the lock. “Naga, do you think perhaps you should take them out while Gourry and I take down Kitsune?”

“Or perhaps we should just forget Kitsune and run now that we have everyone we need.” Naga said.

“We can’t let Kitsune keep getting away with this!” Gourry said as he wrangled with the fox while Lina sprung Zel out and went to unlock Sylphiel’s door. “Who knows how many people she’s trapped.”

“It’s their own bad luck.” Naga said as Zel and Amelia looked on, confused. 

Before Gourry, or Lina, could say anything, Lina pulled back the door holding Sylphiel, who walked out, looking between Lina and Gourry, bewildered. Cautiously she walked up to Gourry, her expression unreadable as the air seemed to cool around them.

Gourry fidgeted nervously, even as he held tight to the fox. “If you want to slap me, it’s okay.”

Sylphiel closed her eyes in frustration, “Is that all you have to say to me?”

“I owe you an explanation. A long one. But right now is really not the time.” He said.

“He’s right.” Amelia said as she looked out the gaping hole in the wall, “There’s a mob coming!”

The group turned to see that the townspeople had amassed bearing torches and pitchforks. “Dammit!” Lina said, “We have to find Kitsune.”

“Find Kitsune?” Zelgadis said, “We have to get out of here!”

“I agree.” Naga said.

“Then take those three and go!” Lina said, “Gourry and I will take down Kitsune.”

“I don’t think we should be separated!” Sylphiel protested.

“You don’t know enough of what is happening to have an opinion.” Lina snapped.

Sylphiel reddened, and Gourry scrambled to find a way to defuse the situation, but he was distracted as the fox continued to pull aggressively on the leash and from fighting the influx of other memories from this world. 

“So be it.” Sylphiel said as she turned to Gourry, “I never understood what you saw in her, but from now on I’m washing my hands of you.”

Sylphiel walked over to Naga, “Take me where you will.”

Naga nodded, “Amelia, warty, this way.”

“Warty?” Zelgadis asked as he followed her nonetheless. 

“You’d better move, the mob is here!” Lina said as she looked at the fox and wondered how they were going to track Kitsune without running into the mob!

Naga opened the door to the jail and ushered Sylphiel, Amelia and Zelgadis out. They didn’t get far. From the woods emerged a pack of wolves, their teeth barred and eyes fierce. The group ran back towards Lina and Gourry, and Lina looked behind her and got a good look at what the group was running from as they closed the door, “Dammit, look, those wolves aren’t real. They’re just one of Kitsune’s illusions.”

“They look very real to me!” Amelia said.

Lina closed her eyes. And then she felt it. The influx of memories from this place grew stronger, threatening to drown out her true identity. But, thanks to the boost spell, Lina was able to fight it, to see the façade for what it was. But what about the others? She opened her eyes just in time to see Gourry let go of the leash. “Gourry!” she admonished, “Why did you do that?”

He looked confused, “Why was I walking a fox?”

“Gourry, we have to track it!” Lina said.

“But why?” he asked.

“Don’t you remember?” Lina said, “To track Kitsune!”

“Kitsune?” Gourry repeated as he looked at the approaching mob in a panic, “Lina, this isn’t time for your delusions!”

Lina felt cold as it occurred to her that the ease with which they’d held onto their memories upon returning to Ktsune’s world had been a trap. She’d been toying with them. She’d allowed them to have their memories for a bit to develop a false sense of security before tricking their minds again. Lina looked out at the approaching mob, and then noticed a pulsing light coming from the north. She frowned, took a deep breath, and went out to greet the mob. “Lina!” Gourry cried.

Lina held her hand out for him to stay back as she glared at the mob. With the boost spell she could see that only about a quarter were real people. “I am Lina, and I am a powerful witch!” she announced as the crowd gasped. “I’ve put these five under a spell to do my bidding! But now I am releasing them, and anyone who harms them will be cursed by me!”

“Lina!” Luna cried as she came up to her. But Lina wasn’t scared of her. She was an illusion. 

“Luna knew I was a witch and aided and abetted me!” Lina said, “So you’re free to do with her as you please.”

Luna turned red as the crowd started to roar as from behind her the wolves came up. Lina pointed to them, and for some reason they disappeared. Lina smiled as she figured that Kitsune likely had her hands full trying to keep this crummy little hell world going. And she could use that to her advantage. “See that pack? I’ve set them on you! While I lured you from your homes I set the wolves loose upon them! As we speak your homes and businesses are being ransacked!”

Thankful that she could now see her real clothes under the illusion, Lina grabbed one of the gems from her shoulder guards, counted a few seconds, and then threw it into an area with a lot of illusionary people. As it exploded she ordered, “Go save your town before it’s too late!”

The crowd screamed, and Lina started to run, grabbing another jewel from her mantle as she did. Someone came up to grab her and she dropped the gem. It exploded, distracting her attacker and kicking up the dirt she needed for cover as she made it to the woods. By then it was chaos among the mob, and it was so dark, that Lina was able to lose sight of them. Unfortunately, it also meant that the fox was long gone. But Lina had a hunch.

She looked to the north and found the pulsing light again. Spells had a focal point from where their caster was, and most spells left a visible trace. Could the pulsing light be emanating from Kitsune as she forced her hell world onto the people unfortunate enough to get trapped in it? Lina started following the light. It wasn’t long until she heard footsteps behind her. She reached for another jewel from her mantle, but stopped as he came into view.

“Gourry?”

“What the hell were you thinking?” He asked, “And how did you do that?”

“No time to explain.” Lina said. “Just shut up and follow me.”

“Lina!” Gourry protested.

“The longer we stand here and argue the more time they have to find us!” Lina insisted.

Gourry looked like he wanted to protest, but ended up nodding grimly. Lina located the pulsing light again and started following it, Gourry on her heels. Lina started jogging as fast as she dared given the uneven surface and the dark, honing in on the light. Lina wasn’t sure how long they had been running, but it seemed as if the light was picking up intensity. Then Gourry said, “We’re being tracked.”

“Shh.” Lina said. She heard a growling from the bushes.

Gourry grabbed a stick and swung it around just in time to club a fox as it shot out of the foliage at Lina. Another fox shot out at her, only to be intercepted by Gourry. Foxes. They had to be close. Lina kept walking forward, chanting as she did.

“Lina!” Gourry cried, “Wrong way!”

Lina ignored him as she kept walking forward. But the growling grew more persistent, and suddenly they were attacked from all sides by a flood of foxes! “I can’t keep fighting them off, they’re too many!” Gourry said.

Lina cried out as one bit at her ankles, but she kept walking forward as she kicked it off her. Behind her Gourry was doing his best to fend them off, but more and more kept getting through. The trees parted, and finally Lina saw her. Kitsune was sitting on a trunk, her three eyes closed as though in a trance, surrounded by growling foxes. Lina wondered why she didn’t do more to defend herself, but then perhaps holding all of their minds hostage took up so much of her concentration that all she could do was set her pets on them. “I pledge myself to conquer…” Lina said, and then she did her best to keep from throwing her hands in front of her face as the foxes charged at her as a group. Gourry moved in front of her and batted several away. “Get behind me! Don’t worry about them!” Lina ordered. She had to keep chanting, and fast!

“But Lina, they’ll tear you apart…” Gourry said as he kept swinging his stick like a club at them.

“You idiot, just trust me!” Lina said as she tried not to cry out as several foxes started climbing up her legs. She tried to kick them off, but they managed to get to her arms and started biting.

Gourry turned to look at her, and then pulled one off of her and threw it to the ground before grabbing the others. “We have to turn back!” he said.

Lina closed her eyes. How could she get him to understand? A fox jumped on her arm again, and she grabbed another jewel from her mantle and threw it. There was an explosion, followed by the whimper of some of the foxes. “So help me Gourry, if you don’t get behind me right now you’ll get caught in the next explosion!”

Gourry’s jaw dropped, and he nodded and got behind her as Lina resumed casting.

“All the foes who stand…” Lina bit her lip as the biggest fox she’d ever seen ran up and jumped on her, nearly sending her flying back. Gourry steadied her and punched at the fox. It whimpered, but his claws dug into Lina and he held on tight! “Against the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand.”

Gourry punched at the fox again, but all that happened was his claws tore deeper into Lina’s flesh as he struggled to hang on. Then Lina felt a stabbing pain in her neck as he bit her throat! Blood started to drip down her neck and backed up into her mouth as behind her, Gourry yelled as he tried to pry the fox off of her. 

Panic set in. Could she still talk? Could she complete the spell? She coughed, spitting out as much blood as she could as she tried to retain her grip on consciousness, “Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you as I possess.”

Her voice was a barely a croak. But the power continued to grow in her hands, even as the fox started to shake his head in what Lina assumed was an attempt to rip her throat out. The pain was blinding! But she still had to complete the spell! “DRAGON SLAVE!” Lina said weakly. But the power that surged from her hands was still strong as it flew towards Kitsune.

But before she could see if it hit or not, the fox clamped down on her throat, and Lina blacked out.


	11. Happiness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and all the people who offered support! I was glad people found this idea interesting. I guess now is the time to fess up that I'm not sure where I prefer to place this story in the continuity of the show (though it's definitely the anime continuity). Part of me likes placing it shortly after NEXT, the other a bit after TRY. I don't think Revo/Evo happened, though I can see some merits to putting this after the Revo/Evo plotlines, but mostly I debate between after NEXT or TRY. Of course, this means I'm not sure which sword Gourry has in this, though thankfully it never became much of a plot point. Anyway, I'm writing this mostly just to let you know you can place it wherever you think makes the most sense in terms of character development.
> 
> And keep an eye out, there may be a postscript coming up!

Gourry was panicking! Lina had fallen limp against him after somehow unleashing some powerful explosion. And he couldn’t get the damn fox off of her! If only he had a knife or a sword with him or…

 _You idiot!_ He shouted at himself as his memories burst forth, _how could you have forgotten that you do have a sword!?_

He grabbed his weapon and, despite the awkward angle, managed to decapitate the animal. He threw it off Lina and lowered her to the ground, blanching when he saw her neck wound and the blood gushing from it. He grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it to her neck and picked her up. He could feel the life draining from her. He glanced towards where Kitsune had been. Had Lina destroyed her? That he had his memories back indicated she had, and he couldn’t sense her presence. But then, he’d been so distracted he hadn’t noticed what had happened when Lina’s spell had made contact.

But he didn’t have the luxury of checking. He had to get Lina to a healer, and fast! So he turned and ran back to the town.

* * *

Amelia hung back with Zelgadis, Sylphiel and Naga as she watched Luna try to reason with the mob. To Amelia’s disbelief, about half of the mob still seemed to be under Luna’s sway! The other half was convinced that she was a witch and was calling for her blood. And as the mob started to fracture and fight, and then started to get violent, Amelia wondered if she would be able to slip away unnoticed.

The sound of an explosion rang, and Amelia threw her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. When she opened them she was stunned to find that most of the town, including Luna, had vanished! And then it hit her. Like the breaching of a dam, her memories exploded into her consciousness. Amelia inhaled sharply as she looked at Zelgadis, who was not longer warty and discolored, but was back to his chimera form. Amelia looked down at her white traveling clothes and put her hands to them. “But how?” she asked.

Sylphiel collapsed to the ground, and Amelia put a hand on her shoulder. She was trembling as tears started to fall down her face. “Miss Sylphiel?” Amelia asked.

Sylphiel gave a few raspy sobs before saying. “It’s like I’ve lost them again. For a third time.”

Amelia squeezed her shoulder and then knelt down to hug her, feeling that awkward emotion one gets when they are celebrating their relief while another is mourning a terrible loss. But much as she wanted to voice it out loud, it seemed horrible to say anything about the fact that her father was likely alive and well at home in Seyruun while Sylphiel’s family and town had been dead and gone for years now.

Zelgadis took a few steps to the remaining townspeople, who looked just as confused and dazed by the sudden return to reality. “What just happened?” he asked, “What has been happening?”

“Oh ho ho!” and Zel, Amelia and Sylphiel jumped as they turned to see Naga standing behind them, laughing. “That’s quite an interesting story there. Where shall I began?”

The townspeople crept closer to the group to listen as Naga talked about meeting with Lina and Gourry and escaping to the real world and regaining their memories. She explained how Kitsune had created this false world to torment people and feed off their misery and how they had returned to destroy Kitsune and free everyone. It was just when Naga was finishing her story that they heard Gourry calling, “Amelia, Sylphiel!”

The women stood up and turned to see Gourry running from the woods carrying Lina, who was bleeding profusely. Amelia and Sylphiel ran to meet him. “Set her down.” Amelia said, and Gourry complied.

Amelia checked Lina’s wrist for a pulse, “It’s weak.” Then she started chanting a spell as Sylphiel asked, “What happened?”

But Gourry didn't seem to hear her as he grabbed Lina's hand and asked. "Will she be alright?”

Amelia continued chanting as Sylphiel looked at their entwined hands, and then decided to focus instead on Lina. Minutes stretched by in agonizing slowness until Sylphiel noted the subtle changes in Lina’s pallor and breathing. “She’ll be fine once Miss Amelia finishes and she gets some rest.”

Usually Sylphiel would put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked like he needed one. But she was mad at him. Furiously mad. Yes, they never had been married, not really. But they had thought they were. And she had worked so hard to keep him happy, but at the first chance he got he went running off with Lina. He hadn’t even tried to make it work with her, even though he thought he was her husband. And while she had been horrified at what her parents had become in that world, she still couldn’t be relieved it was a hoax. Her parents had been alive. If he could have found it within himself to love her then she could have been happy living the lie. 

By running away with Lina he had exposed the lie. He had even managed to set up a scenario where she would be accused of adultery. He was not the perfect knight she thought he’d been for one thing. A knight would never abandon a woman he made a pledge to.

 _That’s not fair._ She told herself, _He never actually made a pledge to me._

Lina started to stir, and Gourry started crying in relief as he reached a hand to caress her cheek. There was an intimacy in the gesture that was new, and Sylphiel felt her rage flair as she became convinced that they had started sleeping with each other. She wondered If he had still thought he was married to her when he decided to become intimate with her.

_But he thought he had._

Sylphiel took a deep breath as she tried to control herself. Especially as, even with all of the pain he had just caused her, part of her wanted him to desire her still, even if just so she could be the one to cruelly dump him. She wanted to be desired. She wanted to be the woman people ran off with because they were so in love. Not the lonely fool who doesn’t even have a family to go home to. The fact that she was alone in the world washed through her like a cruel wave.

“What happened?” Zelgadis asked.

This time Gourry answered, after he took a deep breath and collected himself. “Kitsune sent a bunch of foxes to try to stop her from casting a Dragon Slave. It didn’t stop her, but they mauled her rather badly.” 

_Thereby waking me up to the fact that everyone I love but you is dead. Again._ Sylphiel closed her eyes in disgust with herself and forced herself to look at Gourry. She had to stop thinking this way. But it was so hard. Then she noticed his arm, “You’re hurt, too.”

“Not as bad as her.” Gourry said.

Sylphiel knelt down and started a Recovery spell, desperately hoping it would be the distraction she needed. Gourry looked at her, his expression unfathomable. “Thanks.” he said.

“It appears we have the two of you to thank.” Zelgadis said. “I was scheduled to hang in the morning.”

“Mr. Zelgadis,” Amelia said, “I swear I never wrote those things…”

Zelgadis put a hand on her shoulder, “If Kitsune could create whole memories of things that never happened, then she could easily forge your journal entries.”

Amelia relaxed as she continued healing Lina, whose eyes were starting to flutter open. She sighed in relief when she realized that Amelia was healing her. “Looks like I nabbed her.”

Gourry smiled at her and brushed her hair from her face, “I need to check to make sure, but I think you did.”

“You mean you didn’t check?” she asked.

“Hey, I was worried about keeping you alive.”

“And he should have been.” Amelia said, “You would have bled out if Mr. Gourry had been much longer!”

Lina smiled, “I guess you’re forgiven then. But you’d better go and check.”

“I’ll go with you.” Zelgadis said.

Gourry looked uncertain about leaving Lina. “Will she be okay?” he asked Amelia.

“She’ll be fine.” Amelia said cheerfully.

Gourry smiled and then leaned forward to give Lina a peck on the lips and whisper something in her ear. Amelia’s grin widened while Sylphiel turned and looked away as, even from a distance, they could hear him declare his love.

* * *

“So there Lina was, asking me to join her, and I just couldn’t let her go by herself. I mean, I knew Sylphiel would be okay without me. But Lina seemed so helpless.” Gourry said as he walked with Zel to the battleground. “And being with Sylphiel never seemed right. But…”

“But what?” Zel asked as Gourry’s voice trailed off.

“I think I’m a bit disgusted with myself, learning that there are situations where I would break marriage vows that I made.”

“But surely you don’t think it was the wrong decision…”

“That’s the strange thing, isn’t it? I was so much happier when I left. I even started regaining my real memories.” He laughed a little as he ran a hand through his hair, “I even became crazy like Lina when I did. Xellos said it was because by choosing happiness we were fighting Kitsune’s hold on us. It just feels like I did a horrible thing, and got rewarded for it. Lina and I are open about loving each other now.”

Gourry frowned as he continued, “But it’s not as if Sylphiel was one of the fake people in there. She’s real and has her feelings. She could barely look at me.”

Zegadis thought for a moment, “Still, may be this will be the kick in the pants she needs to move on. You’ve never given her any indication that her feelings would be reciprocated. She’s not blind, she knew what was happening between you two. She was just tormenting herself.”

Something about the way that Zelgadis had finished his sentence seemed personal to the chimera. Going on instinct, Gourry said nothing and waited for the other man to continue, “And if you hadn’t left with Lina we’d still be in that hell world. And now you can say proudly that you always stood by the woman you love, which is more than I can do.”

“Huh?” Gourry said.

Zelgadis smiled wryly, “Amelia asked me to come live with her several times. I always said no, I mean, I was so ugly. I didn’t feel I could curse her with me. And look where it got us, stuck and miserable in Kitsune’s world. But what would have happened if I had said ‘yes?’ It sounds like we would have at least have taken a stand against her.”

Gourry was quite for a moment, “Well, you do know it’s not too late to fix this.”

Zelgadis was silent as Gourry scanned the area they were in, “This is it.” Gourry said, and Zelgadis cast a light spell so they could see it better.

The forest had definitely been tread, and Lina’s blood still stained the ground. “Unfortunately mazoku leave so little trace of their passing.” Zelgadis muttered. “And in the dark, it’s even easier to miss something.”

“If you’re worried about Kitsune surviving a Dragon Slave, you needn’t.” Xellos said as he appeared from behind a tree, “She wasn’t powerful enough to survive an amplified Dragon Slave.”

Zelgadis scowled at him, “What do you want?”

“The same as you.” Xellos said, “To investigate the scene of the crime.”

Zelgadis' eyes narrowed, "You're up to something.”

Xellos smiled, “And you’ll never guess what!”

Then he disappeared. “Damn him!” Zelgadis said, “Sitting on his ass, enjoying our torment.”

Gourry continued to scan the area, “Do you think he was lying about Kitsune?”

Zelgadis sighed, “I guess we’re never going to know for sure. But I don’t see anything here.”

“Not even a fox.” Gourry said.

“Come on, let’s get back to the others and get out of this area.” Zelgadis said.

* * *

After they got Lina to a cabin and situated in a bed, Sylphiel had gone to the porch and sat down on it to process everything. It didn’t take long for Amelia to join her. Sylphiel didn’t mind Amelia being there, but her sister was another thing. Still, there was a lot weighing on Sylphiel’s mind. So she talked.

“I started having dreams about Sairaag being destroyed.” Sylphiel said as she rested her forehead on her hands as she talked with Amelia, “I didn’t know what to make of them. I wondered if I was going crazy. But now, now that we’re ‘awake’ for lack of a better term, it’s just…it’s still hard to see which life was the nightmare.”

Amelia patted her arm as she looked pensive, “I’m so sorry Miss Sylphiel. Wow. I wonder why Kitsune decided to torture you with those memories.”

Naga snorted, “Kitsune wasn’t torturing her.”

“Huh?” Amelia said as Sylphiel looked at the rather strange woman.

“You must have been doing something to fight for your happiness in there.” Naga said. “It happened to Gourry after he left with Lina. He started getting his memories back. If you fight for happiness, then her hold on you weakens.”

“I guess that’s why I never got my memories back.” Amelia said, and then she looked at Sylphiel, who looked stricken. “Oh, Miss Sylphiel…”

Sylphiel reached her hand out, “I can’t…”

Amelia glared at her sister, who raised her eyebrows defensively, “What? All I did was explain how things work!” Naga folded her arms across herself, “What was it you did anyway?”

Sylphiel stood up, “I-I have to go for a walk.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Amelia asked.

“No.”

* * *

Sylphiel was waiting on the outskirts of the village when Gourry and Zelgadis came back. Gourry looked at the grass awkwardly as she walked over to them and attempted to meet his gaze while Zel said, “I think I’ll leave you two alone.”

Gourry looked at Zelgadis as though betrayed. But then, he also knew that they needed to have this conversation. Gourry just didn’t like hurting people.

“If you’re wanting to know if Kitsune’s gone, she is.” Gourry said.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Sylphiel said. “Miss Lina is resting. She’ll recover fully.”

Gourry was relieved, but he wasn’t sure what to say. “I’ll catch up to you later.” Zelgadis said.

Sylphiel continued to stare at Gourry measuredly as Zelgadis walked away. Once Gourry was certain Zel was out of earshot he said, “For what it’s worth, I am sorry, and I do feel bad.”

Sylphiel folded her arms across herself in an uncharacteristically irritable manner, “Part of me thinks I have no right to be so mad at you. But the other part, I mean, you thought we were married! You thought you were my husband, and you just went off with Miss Lina, when you’d made a promise to me!” She looked down, “I feel so disillusioned.”

Gourry shuffled uneasily, “If you need to let it out, let it out.”

“You just seemed so noble! Helping Sairaag and not accepting the money. All my life I’d dreamed of finding someone so honor bound and true to his word. I’ve put you on a pedestal all these years and now…” her voice trailed off.

“You see I’m human?” he asked.

Sylphiel exhaled, and then took a deep breath. “That’s the reason you didn’t stay in Sairaag after we first met, isn’t it?”

Gourry twitched uncomfortably and Sylphiel smiled sadly, “After you came back, I kept thinking it was between me and Miss Lina, and perhaps she might be fun for now, but one day you’d wake up and realize I was the one you wanted. But it was never between me and her was it? I was never in the race.”

An awkward silence passed between them, and Sylphiel grew more and more irritated, both with him and with herself, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Gourry stiffened, “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

Sylphiel’s anger flashed, “It’s a little late for that! I was devastated when you left! If you’d just told me it was never going to happen I would have stopped following you around, hoping you would one day return my feelings! I would never have stumbled into that world with you in the first place!”

Gourry reddened and something flashed in his eyes, “Is there anything more you want to say?” he asked tensely.

Sylphiel felt sick with herself. Especially as she realized that, deep down, she was hoping if she could make him feel guilty enough he would try to make it up to her. She had to stop. But she couldn’t. “What was so wrong about me then?” 

“Don’t say it like that.” Gourry said. “Sometimes the feelings are there, sometimes they aren’t.”

“You promised me some sort of explanation!” Sylphiel insisted.

Gourry sighed and collected his thoughts. “Look, some couples can’t work together. If they worked together day in and day out they get on each other’s nerves right? And others do work with each other day in and day out, and they’re stronger because of it. It’s not that one is better than the other, it’s just that one way works better for some people, and the other way for different people. 

“Well, I want someone who can be my partner, at work and at home. Lina and I are both fighters, we’re both really good at what we do and we work well together.” He smiled a little, “It’s kinda why I’m glad she’s not interested in settling down and being a wife. What would happen to our partnership then?”

Sylphiel wiped her eyes and felt a million protests rise within her. But Gourry continued, “You’ve tried hard to be a traveler and a fighter, but it’s not who you really are, is it?”

Sylphiel let out a shuddering breath as she was confronted with the lengths she had gone to change for him, to become someone he could love, and how miserable it had made her, even before being trapped in Kitsune’s world, “No.”

Then Sylphiel broke down into tears as Gourry watched awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I should have said something earlier.” He offered. “Do you want me to find someone for you to talk to?”

She shook her head, “Just leave me alone.”

Gourry nodded, and left to do as she asked.

* * *

As unsettling as it was, they had to stay in the village until Lina recovered. Due to the combination of blood loss and something likely related to using the boost spell for a prolonged period of time, Lina simply could not be moved. While some of the townspeople left as soon as possible, others stuck around while they considered their possibilities. And even though she had been awake all night, Amelia found that she could not sleep. The possibility that she would wake up and find that she was once again the scribe’s daughter was too petrifying.

So once she saw that Lina was settled in, she started walking around the village, thinking. As dawn approached she started to head back to the cabin Lina was in to check on her, which was when she ran into Zelgadis.

“Hey.” He said as he fell into step beside her.

“Hey.” Amelia said.

Zelgadis seemed to fidget for a moment, his anxiety unusual and a bit alarming. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Um, I was just wondering if we could talk.”

“Of course.” Amelia said.

“I figure you’re going to go back to Seyruun.”

Amelia nodded, “I just have to check and see for myself that my daddy is okay.”

“That’s perfectly understandable.” Zelgadis said as he looked at the ground as a blush overtook him. “I was wondering, actually, if your offer to come to Seyruun with you still stands.”

Amelia stopped walking as she stared at him incredulously. “Do you have to ask? Of course it still stands!”

Zelgadis stopped and turned so they were face to face, and then he quickly reached to grab her hands, as if scared he would lose his daring if he failed to seize the moment. “I was an idiot not to go earlier. Hell, I was an idiot not to leave with you that night when Lina and Gourry took off.”

“Huh?” Amelia said as a blush ran through her.

“I learned that in that world the only way to fight Kitsune was to fight for your happiness. And I fought against what would make me happy at every turn in her world.” Zelgadis explained, “I thought, with a body like mine, I didn’t deserve it. And that mistake could have been so costly. We nearly didn’t make it.”

A tear fell down Amelia’s cheek as Zelgadis continued, “And it made me realize, I’m doing the same thing here, in the real world. I’m fighting against what would make me happy. And it makes no logical sense. I mean, Seyruun is the White Magic capital. I could be with you and keep up my search for the cure. And I’m sure you’d even go traveling with me if I felt I had a good lead outside of the kingdom.”

Amelia leaned forward so that their foreheads were touching, “Of course I would!”

He squeezed her hands gently, “It’s just like in Kitsune’s world. I just didn’t feel I deserve to be happy. And I think being in that world, seeing where that leads, it woke me up to what I need to change. I need to do what makes me happy. And being with you, that’s what would make me happy.”

Amelia threw her arms around him and nuzzled her head against his shoulder. “Somehow, this makes the hell we’ve just been through worth it. Hearing you say this!”

He gingerly reached his arms up to put them around her, as if scared he would crush her. “I’m glad I was able to help you put some meaning to this experience.”

“I love you. Just remember that.” She said.

He moved his hand up to stroke her hair, “I love you too. And don’t forget it.”

She smiled at him, “Kiss me.”

* * *

Gourry was sitting up in the bed, cradling Lina as she rested, while Amelia sat on the edge as she filled them in on the drama that had ensued after they left. Naga and Zelgadis sat nearby in chairs. At one point Lina let out a low whistle, “I feel a bit bad, that Kistune created something from my memories of my sister that was so horrible. And that it was Gourry and mine’s leaving that unleashed it!”

“I’m sure if it didn’t manifest in the character of Luna, it would have through someone else.” Zelgadis said.

“And considering she wanted to break us, it was just a matter of time.” Amelia said. “Besides, if you two hadn’t run off we never would have escaped Kitsune.”

Gourry looked up as he heard Sylphiel’s footsteps down the hallway as Zelgadis asked, “I do have to ask, is your sister really that bad?”

“No.” Lina said firmly, “Actually, hearing all this, it puts it in perspective really. All these years I’ve been making her out to be a bigger monster than she really is.”

Sylphiel appeared in the doorway, and Lina stopped talking as she looked at the bed. Amelia was confused by the sudden silence and turned around to see her and blushed a bit. The intimate way that Gourry was holding Lina made it undeniable that they were now a couple. Sylphiel looked down as an awkward silence filled the air.

Finally Sylphiel broke it. “I just wanted to thank you, for breaking us free from that world.”

“Don’t mention it.” Lina said awkwardly.

“Are you okay, Miss Sylphiel?” Amelia asked tepidly.

Sylphiel managed a small smile, “I will be. That’s what I wanted to tell you, actually. That I will be fine.”

Sylphiel bit her lip as she reigned in the pain, “You see, I’ve been waiting for something that will never happen. Something that I see now would be a bad thing even if it did happen. It seems, no matter how much you may like someone, sometimes you’re just not meant to be together. And, when I realized that in Kitsune’s world, for a brief time, I felt better, not carrying that weight around, I saw that I need to do that here as well.”

The group shifted awkwardly as she continued, “It’s okay. I should have realized this earlier. It’s just, they’ve been rebuilding Sairaag, and I’ve been putting off going home, waiting for the thing to happen that never will. And I see now, I can’t put Sairaag off anymore. Sairaag needs me, and I’ve been neglecting it. I can’t continue that error.”

Zelgadis folded his arms across his chest, “When are you leaving?”

“Immediately.” Sylphiel said, “I actually found a few other people from Sairaag who were trapped here. I’ll be traveling home with them. I just came to say goodbye.”

Amelia got up and gave her a hug, “Write to me, okay? Let me know how things go.”

“I will.” Sylphiel said as she wiped away the tears that formed in her eyes. She then glanced at Lina and Gourry. “I wish you two all the luck and happiness.”

“Sylphiel.” Lina said quietly.

“We hope you’re able to find happiness, too.” Gourry said quietly, “And people to be happy with.”

Sylphiel smiled at him as she moved away from Amelia and bowed forward slightly. “Thank you.”

Then she glanced at Naga, “It was good to meet you. Thank you for getting us out of that world.”

Naga looked a bit surprised at being mentioned, but before she could recover to say anything Sylphiel turned and walked down the hallway and out of the house. And awkward silence fell, and Gourry said, “Even though she was never my wife, I still feel guilty.”

Lina squeezed his hand. “I know.”

* * *

They had parted with Zel and Amelia earlier in the day, and once again, it was just the two of them. Gourry felt relieved to be back on the road again and to get as far away from that place as possible. Not even the fact that he had no idea where he was going bothered him. Lina knew, and as long as he was with her, that was all that mattered. But still, he decided it was time to find out. “Hey Lina, where are we going?”

“Oh,” Lina said as she blushed slightly. “Well, I was thinking about what a monster Kitsune made of my sister. And I guess I realized that I’ve let my fear of her grow way out of hand. I mean, I’d better get a handle on that, you know?”

Gourry thought for a moment, “So we’re going to your home!”

Lina was now in a full-fledged blush, “Well, I mean, it’s been years since I’ve been there. I really should visit. And, if we’re together now, you should meet my folks.”

Gourry smiled as he reflected on how this had somehow turned into a growing experience. Kitsune had plundered their mind and created a world full of misery based on their own self-made roadblocks that were preventing them from embracing happiness, and by escaping and looking back it became obvious how they were sabotaging themselves and what they needed to do to be happier. While they were lucky to survive it, it seemed as if they would be making some good changes thanks to the experience, changes they would benefit from. Not to mention changes that would prevent Kitsune (if she was still alive) or another mazoku from doing the same thing in the future. “I can’t think of a place in the world I’d rather see.”

Lina smiled and grabbed his hand. “It’s settled then. Off to Zeferia, to meet my folks! And then back on the road again as soon as possible.”

Gourry laughed, “You’re on!”


End file.
